The Black Dragon Slayer
by Arms of Loneliness
Summary: Ichigo accepts an offer that Urahara makes, one that he came to regret. Unfortunately, the said proposal involved dimension travels, and he ended up in a world where reiatsu and reishi do not exist. He didn't know what to do or how to get back, but things got weirder than before when a random dragon came and struck him with big and black tail.
1. Chapter 1

**What's up, folks! This is Arms of Loneliness, or AoL if you prefer (talk to me in the review about this: do you prefer Arms of Loneliness in A/N or AoL?), here.**

**Now, this is actually something I've been thinking about for a long time.**

**A rewrite.**

**Yes, a rewrite for one of my older stories.**

**The original will stay up there, with no change whatsoever, but this one will be updated in its stead. **

**:D**

**Let's get started.**

**Oh, and by the way, first few chapters won't have much changes to them, so gr (good reading).**

**Oh, and the second by the way, there is another story out there not written by me that copied some portion of this chapter without permission, word for word. So I say this: at least mention me? What's wrong with you, taking others work and just copy-pasting it?**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Urahara is...: Genius or Failure?**

"Until further tests and adjustments are made, this portal will remain unstable," Kurotsuchi Mayuri, the current head of R & D department and the captain of the 12th Division of Gotei 13, said as he slid a pack of research papers across the wooden desk to Urahara Kisuke. The former president of the R & D department stared at the package suspiiously, as if it was laced with poison. "Yamamoto captain-general has asked that you try to stabilize this portal..."

Then with a 'ah,' Urahara picked the folder up and pulled out its contents.

"What exactly is this portal?"

"A crack in the dimension."

"Oh?"

It's been some time sine there had been a crack in the dimension, Urahara thought as he skimmed over the summaries, data charts, graphs, and the pie charts in the packet. Then after a minute, Urahara set the packet down. "Why are you asking me to do this?" Urahara asked.

"Because my research specialities lie within biology and realted mechanics, while yours lie within wormhole physics, related mechanics, and dimension physics," Kurotsuchi put it straight forward. Urahara smirked. "Besides, the captain-general has assigned me a different assignment. Do you remember the abandoned Project Spearhead?"

"The mod soul one?"

"Yes. As of late, the dimension frequency of the human world -as far as I can tell with my equipment- is approaching 3.2 dimension frequency. And you know that that's not good. After all, you are the one who presented the Aligning Dimension Theory."

Urahara had to concede to Kurotsuchi analysis of "not good." As Kurotsuchi said to him, Urahara was the one who presented the Aligning Dimension Theory. In his Aligning Dimension Theory, he explains that whenever a dimension approaches another dimension's frequency, they all co-align and become one, increasing their frequency as they continue to co-align with other dimensions.

The theory, however, had remained a theory until recently. Neither the DF (Dimension Frequency) of Hueco Mundo, Human World, nor the Soul Society has changed recently (a couple thousand years, give or take). However, it has started to change once more.

"Last time this happened, Hueco Mundo became accessible," Urahara muttered, remembering the ancient data bank that he found in Egypt.

Apparently, Hueco Mundo hadn't been an accessible dimension for the shinigamis, hollows, and humans until four thousand years ago. Ancient Egypt's now-extinct soul society had been able to record the occurrance of converging dimensions, which happened over their land.

Urahara frowned.

Hueco Mundo's appearance has led to an increase in higher tiers of hollows thriving -since shinigamis of any soul society did not venture into Hueco Mundo; that would be a suicide move. Hollows began to take refuge inside the Hueco Mundo.

If convergence of one dimension led to such disaster -known now as Vasto Lorde - class hollows- what would this convergence do? And where would it occur?

"Yes. Now tell me something that I don't know."

"... Anyway," he said as he flipped out his fan and dispelled his own thoughts, having the answer to the last question he asked himself. "If the Human World's DF reaches 3.2., then every single human being will be able to see and touch Hollows as well as shinigamis..."

"And that is the reason why Project Spearhead was revitalized: to provide a means of planet-wide protection for the humans," Kurotsuchi added to himself, mentally berating himself for not thinking like that. "But won't the other soul societies around the world have their own similar projects?"

"I'm sure they will, but it doesn't hurt to have an army to protect ourselves and order of Nipon and Nipon Soul Society."

"True that," the mad scientist replied as he turned to the next set of projects the two scientists had been charged (personally or by the governing body).

Urahara's eyes quirked when the one research paper he was reading talked about unknown portals opening up around the globe.

"Where did this guy pop up?" Urahara asked as he waved the papers he had been reading.

"Somewhere in the Pacific. But it's not the only one.

"Right now in both the human world and the Soul Society, such portals and opening up everywhere. Well, to be precise, there is only fourteen currently in both Earth and Soul Society, but if our DF continues to come together, I do not doubt that more will appear. As much as I am interested in this entire ... fusing dimension fiasco, I must really be going." Kurotsuchi rose up to leave but Urahara stopped him by snapping his fan shut loudly. "What?"

"Where's the fund?"

* * *

Kurotsuchi left the hat-and-clogs shop, cussing.

* * *

As Urahara looked over the research paper -this time perusing it- he found that the focus of this entire fiasco was not the portal itself nor the fusing dimension. Rather it was on what was on the other side of that portal. No doubt, humans would have already started to research their own portals, but the one in Pacific was sure to be safe... Especially if the readings and datas present on this paper were this low.

"Any human radar would miss it."

Urahara looked up and saw the younger Ishida.

"Oh, hello, Ishida-san!"

"That Kurotsuchi bastard leave you with that?"

"Yup."

"... I don't get how you're going to find it. I highly doubt that you can find it with any radar."

Urahara grinned as Ishida came round to sit down. "So how is Kurosaki-san's training going?"

Ishida cringed at the thought of it. "Don't... remind me about it."

Kurosaki Ichigo, the hero of the Winter War, has been training since he regained his shinigami power after the Fullbringer Incident. Kurosaki was still ... ecstatic about having it back, and he was constantly training with his father, and he often dragged Ishida into sparring with him. The power difference between the two, however, was too great, and Ishida ended up losing every single spar. By Ishida's estimation, the strawberry's reiatsu has incrased by tenfold (minimum) and his physical strength alone was enough to shatter a Everest sized asteroid at half strength. Those two aspects of power increase, however, led Kurosaki to forbid himself from using Bankai, lest the entire town disintegrate under his power. Not that his Bankai was needed when his shikai alone was enough to choke a captain-class being of any kind.

"That's ... unfortunate," Urahara said, covering his lower face with his fan. Of course, he was grinning! "But can you tell Kurosaki-san this?"

"Tell him what?" Ishida asked after a moment of silence.

"I have a job for him."

* * *

**Next morning**, Ichigo was out early. Yuzu noticed that because she was always up early to prepare everyone's breakfast. "Where's he going?" Karin asked groggily as she descended the stairs.

"Don't know," Yuzu said as she scooped up a bowl of steamed rice. "But he didn't eat breakfast!"

Karin shrugged as she sat down on the table. Isshin was still sleeping, Karin noticed. Most likely because Ichi-nii beat the crap out of him yesterday.

"I should wake him up..." Then she went up to the second floor with a hammer in her hand.

* * *

Ichigo stood in front of Urahara's shop with a bag slung over his shoulder. He had graduated only a month ago, and as such, he had time. Especially in this winter when no one was playing in the beach or hiking up a slippery mountain.

"Open up already!" he shouted angrily. But this was Ichigo. He always had something to do. "I need to visit those Yakuza to teach them a lesson!"

"Yara yara, Kurosaki-san. You're so loud..." Urahara said as he opened the door. "...And you're early too."

"Should I come later then?"

"No, no. It's perfectly fine. But we gotta travel to the middle of the ocean, you see... Early is just fine."

"Wait, what?"

"We got to go to the Pacific. Middle of the Pacific to be exact. It's only a few clicks west of Hawaii too."

"Wait, wait, wait! Who said anything about traveling!"

"I'll be your sparring partner."

There was a pregnant silence between the two. They stared at each other without words. Urahara knew that it was a good offer, for Ichigo had been asking for it, but Urahara had been refusing. There was not specific reason behind it, other than the fact that his teacher refused to let him spar with him. That had been frustrating for Ichigo, because he wanted to test his power gauge against his teacher. His father provided an excellent measuring stick, but at the same time, the said man was not a good teacher who can point things how to Ichigo.

"Let's go."

* * *

**Few months later in the middle of Pacific Ocean..**

Kurosaki Ichigo, the hero of Winter War, gulped as he watched the blue and black wormhole in front of him. It looked very ominous by itself, but the organic-like equipment that Urahara bought along made it look more like the gate to hell. "Come on, Kurosaki-san. The gate is ready!"

Ichigo turned around and glared at Urahara.

"You expect me to go through that?" The portal itself looked fine, but inside, there were lightnings and fizzes that made one want to stay away from it, as if it was a time bomb.

"It's perfectly safe, as of the moment," Urahara said.

"As of the moment..." That was supposed to be a reassurance?

Not quite.

Ichigo turned back again, trying to figure out exactly how safe this thing was. Then suddenly as another ligthning struck the event horizon of the wormhole, he felt very unsure. Of course he had sparred with Urahra. It turned out exactly the way he expected, but still.

"I did my part of the deal. Your turn!" Urahra cheered from behind his gigantic equipment. "Besides, all you have to do is just go through, see what's on the other side, and come back."

"What if the portal isn't there?"

"I'm sure you'll find a way," Urahara said as he held up a boxing glove.

"What's that for?"

"Pushing you in, of course."

Ichigo glared at him. "You're not-"

BOING!

The boxing glove was actually a contraption, you see. It has a spring that goes forth about fourty meters.

And Ichigo got hit. He stumbled backward and the wormhole sucked him in.

"Curse you-!"

As if it was a vaccum, the wormhole sucked him in from his world, and pushed him into the next.

"Good luck!" But just as Urahara said so, the machinery around him died down with a high to low biyooooou.

He whirled around. "W-What-?"

Then the gate disappeared with a zap.

"...Crud."

* * *

-AoL-

* * *

When Ichigo woke up -though he didn't remember falling asleep- he found himself hovering in midair.

He shook himself awake and looked about. He was on a cliff, and not sure exactly how he was hanging.

Snap.

He turned around.

Ah.

His clothes. His red on black t-shirt to be exact.

On a branch.

How cliche-.

SNAP.

Ichigo cursed his own luck as the branch snapped and he felt himself falling down to the forest beneath.

Just before he hit the forest canopy, he summoned his Fullbringer ability, one that he took back from Ginjo. Black energy formed a silhouette around Ichigo's shoe and back along the spine.

Then just before he crashed into the canopy, he landed on the air by creating a reiatsu platform.

He stood up straight and wiped the single sweat that had formed on his forehead. That was close.

It was then that Ichigo felt the difference in his reiatsu.

The funny thing was, it no longer felt like a reiatsu but more like a water. Like warm water around him. Reiatsu felt more like a solid skin around him, but this change in his power felt much more light.

He shrugged it off, since the change affected neither his power level nor his ease in which he can bring forth his powers. But not sure of the entire deal, he decided to test it out and unsheathed his giant clever like zanpakuto. "BANKAI!"

A whirlwind immediately surrounded him as changes took place.

Then the winds dissipated as soon as it had begun, and Ichigo was left standing once more in midair. Surprisingly, his clothes had not changed.

He looked at Tensa Zangetsu and grinned. Yup, it was going to be perfectly fine-.

Then he remembered about the entire portal deal and looked around frantically.

No portal was in sight. There was nothing remotely similar to it.

He felt a vein pop up on his forehead. "Damn you, Kisuke!"

Then just as he said that, he was hit by something big and long.

* * *

Acnologia didn't expect to have a visitor any time soon. This level of strength was that of a dragon... No. A being higher than a dragon. Without much thought, the black dragon of apocalypse crawled out of its den and into the light.

But there was nothing in sight.

'The fuck?' it thought as it scanned the horizon. The power was here as was the being emitting the said power. So, where the hell was it?

Then he felt and saw a sudden spike in power. It turned its head towards that direction and its eyes diluted in fear. A black pillar of light that made life all around it scramble away in fear. Or die staying near it.

And it was power.

But within that power was an evil ... an emptiness that Acnologia only felt twice before.

Once from Zeref ...

And the other...

Acnologia growled as it turned its body towards it.

That evil...

If its black skin represented a warlord, this black was abyss, the colored of a demon lord.

Though Acnowlogia did not like humans, it loved the world it lived in. And this power was a threat to itself and the world.

"I'll get rid of you...!" Acnowlogia hissed in a deep roaring volume like a thunder as it launched itself towards the pillar.

Then as it got closer, it saw the source of the power: a human.

'It's always a human!' it thought as it got ready to launch the first strike. 'They. Always. Cause. Trouble!'

Slam.

And the insect human flew and struck the cliff wall. A large dust cloud spewed out from the point of impact.

"...That was weak," Acnowlogia muttered as it kept itself flying before the cliff, waiting for the human he knew who wasn't dead to come out already.

* * *

Ichigo really hadn't expected something as big and long as what hit him to hit him. It was a total surprise.

But it didn't hurt and he was back up within seconds. "...Ow..." he muttered in mock hurt, more hurt that someone would just strike him like that than actually being hurt. 'Does my scowl really look that bad?' he thought to himself as he remembered few of the occurrances that happened during his middle school years, where he got into fight just because of the ferocity of his scowl.

Ichigo pushed himself out of the crater and kept himself hovering. There were dust clouds of all shades of gray and brown floating about, keeping Ichigo hidden from his attacker. His big attacker. Ichigo glared at the hostile attacker as the dust clouds began to fade away... and he was slightly amazed that it was a very unique looking black dragon.

'I thought dragons have leather wings ... not feather-like wings,' he thought to himself before hefting Tensa Zangetsu over his right shoulder. "Why did you attack me?"

The dragon just growled instead. At the moment, it didn't feel like talking to a insect.

"Oi, I've seen more powerful guys than you, so speak up," Ichigo continued. "I heard you talk."

The dragon growled in return, but it made to aggressive movement against Ichigo. It would be pointless. This man was quite strong. He could easily overpower it even if he didn't use half of his power.

For the first time in a long time, Acnologia felt its body give an almost imperceptible tremor of fear.

"Be that way," Ichigo said as he began to walk away to his right. As he left the cliffs, the mountains, and the dragon, he couldn't help but both fume over and be gleeful about the situation he was in. He couldn't see nor feel the portal, and thus, there was no way for him to get back. He wouldn't get back so easily but he would surely beat the crap out of hat-and-clogs afterwards.

"If only -"

Slam.

This time, though, Ichigo blocked the giant tail.

"..." he turned around with his scowl. "One." He began. The dragon was confused, though. One? What was that supposed to mean? "If you mess with strangers, be prepared to pay."

Ichigo grabbed the tail by wrapping his arms tightly around it. And with a heave, he pulled the dragon and threw it against the cliff that it had thrown him into before. The dragon roared as pain spiked throughout its body.

'How strong is this bastard?' it thought as it tried to recover from the blow.

"Two." Crap. "Ethics: Do treat strangers with kindness. Or else, it's bad karma." With that he tightened the already tight hold on the dragon and slammed it once more into the cliff. The dragon roared this time from both pain and bent ego. Ichigo released his grip on the tail and shunpo'ed right up to its face. The awe-inspiring speed in which Ichigo moved at shocked the dazed dragon. It attempted to attack with Breath, but Ichigo grabbed the lower jaw and sent it hurling up. The jaw crashed with the upper jaw, and the breath attack that Acnologia tried to blast Ichigo with exploded within its own mouth.

"Three." Shit. "Aren't you going to say sorry?" Ichigo brought up his leg and did a hammer kick upon his head.

The sheer force of the blow was equivalent to a concentrated nuclear weapon, forced into a small invisible funnel. Neither knew about it, but there was onl one fact about it: it hurt like hell.

The dragon was sent pummeling down, and with a bone-cracking thud, crashed into the ground. A huge dust cloud was thrown up where it was, and Ichigo looked at the spot, satisfied by what he did. This dragon was just like any other bully he "taught." Violence against violence. It worked the best like that.

* * *

'T-This is humiliating...' Acnologia thought as it tried to stand up, only to realize that its right foreleg was broken. It roared in pain.

It felt ... helpless. Helpless against this new power. 'Fuck...'

Then suddenly, it felt its body shrinking. 'Shit, magic is leaving me!' But it knew why it was happening. When a dragon becomes too tired to continue in its large, bulky form, it sheds its larger form to take the shape of a human. 'No, I don't want to be a human!' At the same time, Acnologia knew that the human form was only a temporary measure until it had healed. 'F-Fuck!'

* * *

When Ichigo didn't see a huge black form as the dust clouds began to settle down, he become worried. Had he used too much power in his last kick? He didn't kill it, did he?

So, he made his way down to the ground with few midair steps. But when he got there, there was nothing there.

The body was missing.

"The hell?"

* * *

Acnologia hadn't used its human legs for a while. It's been about four decades since it did. And as such, it felt very, very weak.

"Kyaah!"

Acnologia screamed as it tripped over a tree root. It fell down on its side and bounced off.

And then it was right next to the cliff.

But it couldn't stop itself in its current fragile form and then it was right on the edge.

And rolled off.

* * *

"Kyaah!"

That was pretty loud.

But there was no one about as far as Ichigo knew. Which only left... the black dragon.

"Please don't tell me it transformed like some manga."

He quickly shunpo'ed over to the source of the sound.

He was at a cliff.

"Did I hear it wrong?" Ichigo thought as he surveyed behind him, where the forest was. He couldn't feel anything coming from there. In fact, it felt pretty lifeless if Ichigo filtered out the life energy -he didn't know how, but he was sensing things in this world- coming from the trees, there was nothing there.

So he turned around... and there.

Right .. beneath him?

He looked down, and he saw a black haired girl dressed in black scale-like one piece hanging unto her dear life by the tree branch that had stuck out of the earth.

"...You don't look so strong now," he grinned. "Dragon."

"S-Shut up!" she growled at him, but her body language was speaking "HELP ME!"

"Fine..." With two quick succession of shunpo's, Acnowlogia found herself in Ichigo's strong arms, holding her up in bridal-style.

Acnologia was confused for few seconds by the whirl of her surroundings. She actually felt sick, for the sudden movement annoyed her already empty stomach. But then she calmed down and looked about. She was in his arms, bridal-style too, and found that it was comfortable.

Then she had the cuteness to blush after realizing all that. However,when she blushed, she moved her arms, and moving her broken arm got pain to make her yelp.

* * *

Ichigo took a detailed note of her facial features a few moments after having rescued her from her demise.

Her face was round with soft-looking lips and cheeks. Her eyes and hair were all black like the skin she wore when she was a dragon.

Then he realized something ... embarrassing about her clothes.

It was really tight on her, especially near the top. His wandering eyes slowlu traveled down from her face to her neck (pale like her face and slim), and then her -.

'GAAAH! What the HELL am I doing?' Ichigo quickly tore his eyes away from her and looked up.

"Ah!"

The yelp was quick and abruptly cut off, but he heard it.

He looked down and he grimaced when he saw her broken arm, swollen and bleeding. But the worst part of it was that there was a bone sticking out of it.

Yeah, he used a bit too much power.

"We're going to need to fix that arm of yours."

She refused to reply. She looked away instead.

"Look, I'm new to this world."

She turned around and looked at him from the corner of her eyes, a bit confused with what he just said.

"I need to learn. So in exchange for forgetting about our meeting and healing that arm of yours instantly without pain, teach me about this world," he said. "Or I can drop you down the cliff."

"I'm not scared, 'kid.'"

Indeed, despite her mature looks, she, at the same time, looked like a teenager nearing 20's. 'And you know that that's partially true,' Acnologia thought as she remembered her brief memory of her very old parents. Parents who were 500 years older than their daughter. She was less than 100 years old...

Sure, her name was Acnologia, but it was like a family name ... with no first name for anyone in said family. They were all simply called Acnologia.

"Look, do we have a deal or not? I'm kind of desperate..."

"...Fine."

"You spoke!" But Ichigo felt happy that he managed to make her speak. He had come to communicate with her, and that was important.

But he still had one thing to worry about: was he stuck here in this new world -as fascinating it was- or will he be able to go back home?

He wanted to know, but there were other things in this world that was currently occupying his mind right now. Like what kind of things she can teach him. Starting with her name.

"What's your name?"

"Acnologia."

"Kurosaki Ichigo. Kurosaki is surname and Ichigo is my given name."

"... "

"..."

"..."

"So, what do you like?"

"Killing idiotic humans."

Great, something to fix.

* * *

**Acnologia is actually male in both manga and the anime, but who cares. I made it a girl to suit my needs.**

**If you want a visual for her human form, imagine the edolas Wendy(manga image of her please, i hate anime because they ruin the art) with ... less size. Just slightly. **

**Fixed Post. 4-17-2012  
Rewrite Post. 7-16-2013(From South Korea)**


	2. Chapter 2

**XD**

**Yeah, sorry about not making Ichigo a good enough of a prude.**

**Yeah, even for the me, the ending I made was a bit too bitter. **

**Still thinking about how to add the Quincy stuff.**

**Chapter 2: Black Dragon Slayer Magic? What's that?**

And so after having made the agreement with Acnologia, Ichigo healed her right arm with a kido he learned from Rukia. Though it took a trial or two to get the kido right, he managed it in the end, and her broken arm was brand new, in a sense.

In turn, Acnologia began to teach him a lot about the world that he was currently in. However, this was not without its own issues.

First, Acnologia tried to go back against her promise by attacking him from behind. He didn't seem to notice, though, because he turned around after she struck him with her magic-enhanced fist and gave her a confused stare. "Did something happen?" he had asked.

So now truly realizing that she was powerless even with her own dragon magic, she began to teach him about their world.

Ichigo understood some of it, but not all of it.

There were all kinds of magic in this world, according to the dragon. She said that the attack she wanted to use when he kicked her up the jaw was a breath attack, and proceeded to show him a smaller version of it too by breathing it right into his face; he came out unscathed.

Acnologia coughed after showing Ichigo her breath attack magic, while the said man watched with curiosity and interest in his eyes, though his face remained hard and in a frown. "Do that again."

"No. I'm still weak," she retorted right back at him. Do it again? 'Ugh... I must be so powerless compared to him. It didn't even burn him or even give off a decent burning temperature... I feel pathetic.'

This was Acnologia, the self-proclaimed "Terror of Humanity." As far as she was concerned, humans were scared little insects to her that were not worth talking to. Except this man, who was much stronger than her in terms of power. So she kept her head low, and didn't try anything too aggressive towards him, though he had first thought that she would have first few days.

Well, she did tell him that she did attack him, but he seemed to simply ignore it. Ichigo retorted by saying that he didn't even feel it.

And this was Kurosaki Ichigo, the hero of Soul Society, Seireitei, Karakura Town, and the King's Realm. Which, if everything was put together, meant absolutely nothing to where he currently was.

"Anyway, that was magic. Magic is the physical embodiment of one's spirit. When the spirit or soul comes in contact with a physical body, it creates magic," Acnologia began today. Then with a snap of her finger, she created a doll of some sort from thin air that evaporate immediately afterwards. "Magic comes in all size, shape, and structure. And to perform magic, the flow of magic must be great within people. Take note that only few people can actually use magic because the said flow in most people is not good enough. For example, lustful men who goes around sleeping with every other girl usually can't use magic because his soul can't find a place to stay firm. Same goes for women. Dragons, however, can because we generally produce vast quantities of magic, meaning there is a large flow of magic within us. It is also within our nature to have many mates, though they always end up fighting over who they want."

Ichigo nodded. It was different from reiatsu, which was just purely matters of the soul.

"And magic comes in two types: casting and holding.

"Casters, mages who use casting spells, expel magic out of themselves. For example, dragon slayer magic, which I used in my breath, is a casting spell.

"Then there are the holders, who use holding spell. Holding spell requires a medium to perform the spell with. And now that I see you... You might be a holder."

"How so?" Ichigo asked with a frown. How can he be a holder when he couldn't use magic right now?

"There is a connection between you and your sword. Very strong connection, actually."

Ichigo shrugged. That was to be. Zangetsu and Tensa Zangetsu, whatever their form, was a part of him. He was of them. A connection had to exist within one's own soul.

"But at the same time, I don't sense any sort of magic flowing between you two, and the new flow of magic in you, actually, flows out like a fire. Yes, very interesting." She said as she slowly changed her vision to "magic-sensing" field. Her eyes grew black until the abyss absorbed everything within her eye socket.

Indeed, his magic flows more like a fiery bonfire, Acnowlogia thought as she looked from his magic to hers. Though her magic was fiery within her own body, it was not as big as his. His was a bonfire; hers was a cooking fire... And most mages would not even be an ember.

She switched her vision back and grimaced.

Something big and clumsy moved in her head, forcing gears she has not used in quite a while. Then she had it. The gears moved with rapid speed, processing numerous thoughts and facts within her brain and then everything came to a screeching halt.

"...I'm going to teach you a magic."

"What kind of magic?" Immediate reply. Good.

Her smile stretched from jaw to jaw.

* * *

_"A-Acnologia sightings?" Makarov twitched and stuttered at the same time when he heard it. "That just can't be good..." He and the other guild masters were in a sour mood. In their meeting hall, there were no boozes nor music that usually accompanies the annual guild masters' meeting. Instead of all those, there were papers and witnesses who saw the feared black dragon, whose primary role -told by rumors- was the signal the changes of coming times. Makarov looked around and his surprised expression fell grim. "That's the reason why the meeting was so ... dead."_

_"Anything related to that bastard is never good," Goldmine grumbled as he adjusted his black glasses._

_"Where has it been sighted?"_

_"Just on the mountain ranges outside Fiore..."_

_"Has the Magic Council been informed of this?" another guild master asked._

_"Yes... Our fastest mage went to deliver the letter that I wrote personally," Goldmine said. "I doubt that they'll do anything about it though."_

Makarov sighed as he remembered that meeting. He looked down from his place on the second floor's railings to see his family dancing, laughing, fighting, and eating, oblivious to the news. And they will never know. It had been decided by the counsel that the general population cannot know of it. There will surely be chaos and panic.

"Erza, fight me!" Natsu shouted as he came flying at Erza, but the said women, Titania of Fairy Tail, dodged the jump by sidestepping to the right. Natsu hit the floor and rolled over, ending up upside down against the wooden wall and the cobble floor. "FIGHT ME!"

"Energetic as always, Natsu," Erza said as she moved away from Natsu and sat down in front of Mirajane, who was cleaning the cups at that moment.

"Oh, you're back!" Mira exclaimed. "Did the mission go well?" she asked her former rival as Erza, who limped her way to one of the table and almost crashed into it, getting some serious attention from other guild members. 'I'm guessing that the mission didn't go well,' Mirajane thought with a sigh.

Erza looked up to Master, who looked back at her with half-hopeful, half-anxious face. "No, it did not," she replied. Makarov cringed.

Everyone in the room came to a grinding halt.

Erza Scarlet, Titania of Fairy Tail, failed a mission? That was preposterous. Something must be wrong.

'Wait, there is,' Laxus, who had been looking at her right beside his grandfather. 'She just failed a mission.' With that, he gave himself a mental chuckle at his own thoughts.

"What happened?" Mira asked, shocked by the news.

"...A dragon attacked me," she said as she re-equipped into her Purgatory Armor. When she did, everyone gawked at the cracks and the holes missing in the armor just before the entirety of the armor fell apart into pieces. "A black dragon... I could have died, but I managed to survive by running away..." She changed back and shuddered. She shakedly stood back up. "I-I'm going home-" she said as she took a step but just as she did so, she fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Everyone gawked, and rushed over to her.

"E-Erza!"

Makarov cringed as he ran down to her. He shouldn't have sent her to do the mission. It was a miracle that she survived. He knew that it was Gilderts who had to do it, but no one currently knew where the man was, let alone a single sighting of the man. 'I shouldn't have sent her to where that blasted dragon was sighted...!' he mentally berated herself.

"Sorry ... for not being strong ... enough," Erza muttered to Makarov as the giant changed his size to help her up.

He shook his head at what she said. "No, it's alright. I made a wrong call, and you paid the price for it. It's me that has to ask for your forgiveness. I put you on the path of that blasted dragon...!"

Erza sighed. "Give me a cup of beer."

* * *

Ichigo stared meticulously at his hands, which were now caught on black fire.

"This magic is called Black Dragon Slayer magic," Acnowlogia said. "That's what the humans call any sort of magic attacks dragons use when a human learns them."

Ichigo kept staring at his hands.

"Ichigo?"

"Uh yeah!" Ichigo snapped out of the daze and shook the fire off. "So what was it called again?"

A vein popped up on her forehead. "Black Dragon Slayer Magic."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Why would you teach me something that's meant to kill you?"

She facepalmed. "I just explained that if a human learns a dragon's magic, then that magic is called dragon slayer magic!"

"Wah! Why are you so aggressive?" Ichigo retorted back at her with a scowl on his face.

She growled and punched him in the abdomen. "Because you don't fucking listen, you dipshit!" she roared as she proceeded to start stomping on his feet. "You're always staring off into space!" He remained unfazed by it all.

Then with a clean uppercut -which was the only thing she could do effectively considering their height difference- she hit his jaw. The blow sent his head snapping backward and Ichigo falling backward. But he quickly regained his balance and his head position. "OW! That hurts!" he complained as he tried to get back at her with his fist. She dodged them, thank goodness, but he managed to grab her dress from behind and pull.

Now how was he able to hit her without killing her? Simple: he sealed more than half of his power into a seal. It was something Rukia taught him when he couldn't control his overflowing power. It helped him back in Karakura Town -or it would have been obliterated a long time ago.

So his power was currently around a high-tier captain level. While it was ridiculously strong even with the seal on him, at least now he could grab a rabbit without instantly obliterating its neck.

"Fuck you, Ichigo! I ain't going to mate you!" she shouted, trying to keep the dress from being slipped off. Despite how tight the dress looked, Ichigo realized not too long ago, it was very easy to slip one out of it.

"W-W-What?!" Ichigo stuttered before moving away from Acnologia. "I was not going to do anything like that! I'm not a pervert!"

"You were taking my clothes off!" she retorted with a angry growl as she lifted it back up.

Ichigo frowned. "I was just trying to get you to stop," he growled before grumbling and then sighing. "Okay, okay. Sorry. Let's get on with that explanation on magic anyway. We shouldn't be just constantly arguing with each other."

She smirked. She still had the advantage over him: he knew nothing about this world and was very intent on learning about it.

"Okay. Generally, magic used by mages are converted forms of magic. Let's say Alpha (A) is raw magic a body produces, then mages are able to convert that A into Beta (B). But they do it unconsciously and all the time. Got that so far?" Ichigo nodded. "Mages use this B to perform their magic. Unlike A, however, its power has been significantly reduced. Now, those who use dragon slayer magic must ..."

* * *

After four hour lecture and twenty or so trials, Ichigo sat in front of the cleared section of the forest. He was sweating profusely and had his tongue stuck out like a dog. He was dead tired but he was not dead from interacting with Acnologia, yet.

"So?" he asked quietly, his throat and the rest of the body tired from the endless magic attacks he had performed until he got the technique right.

Acnologia looked at the cleared forest and gulped silently. Usually, learning a magic requires years and practice and learning, but this boy learned it within twelve hours. It was a obvious sign of his exponential learning rate, but at the same time, showed how dangerous this boy was.

"Acnologia."

She turned her attention to him, attempting to look as normal as possible. "You did good," she stated simply. There was nothing else to say. He had gotten the basics of dragon slayer magic with impossible precision and put those basics to practical use by performing a Black Dragon's Claw.

"Sorry, but I have nothing to teach you now if you can easily get that down..." Anologia muttered. "And I can't teach you about the human world, considering that I don't hang out with insects."

Ichigo just nodded slowly. Then there was a very charming smile that ripped across his face, followed by a boyish smirk of victory. "Then I'll have to find out about that on my own," he said as he picked up Zangetsu. Acnologia had to shift away from Ichigo, lest he accidentally chop her head off with that giant machete. But to her surprise, he kept the giant sword very close to himself, and made little movement as possible. She recognized that even during her first meeting with him, but he was doing this on a unconscious daily movement. 'He must have been in a lot of battles. His body is constantly ready... I got him that time by surprise...'

He turned around and looked at her. "What are you staring so intently at me for? Do I have some dirt somewhere?" he asked as he checked his t-shirt and pair of jeans.

To Ichigo, that had been a significant change. Zangetsu, his zanpaktou, was supposed to appear only when he was in his spirit form as a shinigami. However, when he came through to this world with his soul within the body, the soul refused to separate and remained in the body... pushing Zangetsu out. So he was now constantly carrying the giant clever.

Or he guessed. He hadn't had the time to confirm his suspicions, but they weren't much of a issue to him as of the moment. He could use Zangetsu, and he was thankful for it.

Ichigo began to walk away, and Acnowlogia guessed that it was done. He had kept his part of the deal, healing her wounds, and she had kept his part of the deal, teaching him as much as she could about this world. But as she watched him walk into the forest towards the nearest town they saw during their fight, she couldn't help but feel that she was going to miss him.

After all, how often does a dragon find someone stronger than itself?

And then he was gone.

She sighed and turned her heel to the opposite direction.

"Aren't you coming?"

She whirled around, surprised by the sudden question.

Ichigo was sticking his head into the clearing from the forest.

"What?"

"Aren't you coming with me?" he asked again.

"W-Why would I?" she asked, both somehow satisfied and baffled by the question. Satisfied, because she would like to stick with him... 'He was freaking strong, okay?! Dragons like to have strong mates! This guy was stronger than her, and he was a - a - a h-human...' She shook her head. But at the same time, she was baffled because he was asking her to come to a human town knowing that she regarded humans as insects.

"Well, you don't know half of your world. Time to learn it," he said as he gestured with his head, pointing to the general direction of the town. "Besides, I could use some company on my travels."

She grinned. "That's good."

"Good?"

"N-Never mind!" she retorted, slightly embarrassed by her own words. "Let's just fine that stupid town!"

As she rushed pass him, Ichigo grinned at her, knowing that they would have a great friendship.

* * *

"Well?"

"That's definitely a good target."

"They're too close to town. Should we wait?"

"Naw, let's just kill them right here..."

With that, the second bandit pulled out his crossbow from under the branches and aimed to kill Ichigo.

* * *

Ichigo heard the conversation -they were tad bit louder than they must've thought- and just as the crossbow arrow came whirling at him, he pulled Zangetsu and with blinding speed, swatted the arrow away. The bandits cursed their luck and gave a whistle.

Soon, bandits popped out from everywhere on the road and surrounded them.

"Now, now, hero. Why don't you just put that sword down and surrender. There is no way you can win all of us," the first bandit that had spoken said as he adjusted his bandana and leather jacket before waving his hand over to his forty of so comrades.

Ichigo just sighed in frustration. Wherever he went, there was trouble somewhere waiting for him. He grabbed Zangetsu by the long chain on its handlebutt and began to swing it.

"I'll tell you exactly the same thing I told this lady here," Ichigo said as the sword began to gain speed.

"One..." Acnologia heard that and quickly backed away from Ichigo, still fearing the beating he gave her. "If you mess with strangers, be prepared to pay."

* * *

Ichigo later found himself dragging every single one of the bandits by the rope they had. He had tied all of their wrists and ankles, as to prevent escape, and stripped them naked of all things except their boxers or bras. Acnologia had told him that it would be good for him to do so, for they were bandits - someone always will pay to turn in bandits. So Ichigo obliged to the little money-making scheme and dragged them on their backs on the rocky dirt road with all forty in tow as he approached the town.

The town was a very large town, almost a city rather than a town. It had a lot of people going in and out of it as well. But as he passed by the people that were travelling on the same road -and the frequency in which Ichigo and Acnologia met people grew as they came closer to the town- they all gasped at him and some cheered.

He felt some hero, though confused as he was by their sudden cheer.

So when he came in front of the gate where the guards were, he tapped the shoulder of one of the guards that was waving off one of the villagers that had entered the city, thus looking at the opposite direction and not noticing Ichigo and his forty bandits. When the guard turned around, he also shrieked in shock but he managed to gain composure. "Why are the people cheering me?" Ichigo asked the guard.

The guard blinked. "You haven't heard about the Dirt Brothers?" he asked and Ichigo and Acnologia shook their head. "They were the ones terrorizing the local towns! Even most of the mages had trouble dealing with them! How did you do this?"

Ichigo shrugged sheepishly. He really was not used to receiving praise. "I just knocked them all out..." he muttered as the guards opened the gate. He gave them his thanks and walked through the gate and towards the town center.

When he did get there, the mayor of the town rushed out and hugged him. He was a grey bearded and mustached man without head hair.

Ichigo only shrugged it off, and the mayor did two things.

First, he laid a very heavy sack of money in his hand. "You have done us a great favor, youngsters! I hope this will be enough to satisfy you!" he said. Then he asked another favor. "However, this town is not strong enough to keep these forty bandits. We must have them transported to the major city where they will be imprisoned. I cannot, however, call up enough men to do that without jeopardizing this year's harvest! So I must ask you to transport these bandits to Magnolia, where the federal authority will provide you with handsome reward if you give this piece of memo to them," he said as he quickly scribbled a memo on a piece of paper and stamped it at the end. "It's more like a mayor's signature, but you get the point?"

Ichigo nodded. This town was small, so it was good to move on to this .. Magnolia. "Does Magnolia have a big library?" he asked the mayor who nodded fervently. He shrugged again, and he noticed that he was doing that a lot. "I guess I can do that."

"Oh, thank you! But for now, enjoy a little celebration we're going to throw in your honor!"

Then four bulky men came up to him with robes food and wine. The townspeople were also gathering about as they quickly set up tents and tables.

Ichigo sweatdropped. "W-Wait. I think I'll just go right now..." he began.

"No, no, no... You've done us a great favor. We must pay you back!"

"S-STOP!"

* * *

Ichigo hiccuped. Despite being a demi-god, he was quite weak to substances like alcohol.

"You are pathetic," Acnologia muttered behind him as the man continued to drag the bandits behind him.

"I *hiccup* couldn't help it! They just stormed me in and out! *Hiccup* I couldn't fight back, ya know? Not unless I want to seriously hurt them!" Ichigo complained groggily, the effects of alcohol disturbing his ability to speak clearly.

She just shook her head. "You are still pathetic."

"Fuck you too. *Hiccup*"

She whirled on him. "What'd you say?"

"Fuck-"

POW!

"You bitch!" Ichigo growled as he took a lazy swing at her. She easily sidestepped before headbutting Ichigo on the forehead. That was actually a bad move, as she got hurt more.

"Kyaah!"

"That hurts...!" Ichigo grumbled as he kept himself upright while swinging a lot side to side.

* * *

The bandits behind Ichigo and Acnowlogia watched the two demi-gods fight. One drunk, the other just plain angry. They stayed quiet, not wanting that anger to be turned up on them.

But they all sighed, knowing that their days as pirates of land was over and a new life of imprisonment would soon begin.

And they were quite right about that.

* * *

It took them two day's journey -since Ichigo didn't want to kill all of the bandits with his hyperspeed movement- to reach Magnolia.

Unlike the first town, Magnolia was a big, bustling trade city with lots of carts and people coming in and out.

'At least I can visit a decent library here...' he thought as he began to drag the bandits, who were now begging for death rather than to be dragged through the city's cobble floor, into the cobble floored city.

He reached what looked like a town center, and he was right about that when the captain of the guard of the city- one could tell from his fancy, caped uniform- came out to see him.

"Yeah, these guys are the Dirt Brothers. Nice job there, hero."

"Thanks."

"Now, here's your reward," the captain said as he gave Ichigo a sack of money. "Now, I know that you'll be quite bored while you stay here. You can go and look around, if you want. Oh, but you must visit Fairy Tail."

"Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah."

"What's Fairy Tail?"

"What? You don't know Fairy Tail, the strongest magic guild in Fiore?"

Both the captain and Ichigo turned around to see a almost pink-haired boy with a white muffler around his neck. Followed by a upright cat.

A upright blue cat.


	3. Chapter 3

**It's from this point on where I'm going to be doing a lot of editing, splicing, cutting, pasting(from my own story), and reworking. So expect new contents and events to show up.**

**Well, yes, I also intend to attempt to stay with Ichigo's MC characteristics this time, though I do keep wanting to develop it pretty dark for some reason.**

**Enjoy.**

**Chapter 3: Ichigo vs. Natsu**

Ichigo instantly knew that Natsu was either part of this Fairy Tail or heavily affiliated with it. But man, did he have to cause trouble like this in the middle of the street?

Ichigo only raised his eyebrows but kept his eye lids the same. "Like I should give a damn about it!" Ichigo replied to Natsu, and then instantly regretting how he had let the fight go on by responding to him. "Everyone's weak to me anyway." Oh well.

Natsu growled at Ichigo. "You wanna fight?"

Ichigo scoffed. "I don't fight kids."

And that was true. Natsu looked like 13 at max, and Ichigo was a tall man of early 20's.

"Can you perform magic?"

Ichigo looked at Natsu before he shrugged. "Yeah."

"Then why the hell don't you know about Fairy Tail?!" Natusu went off roaring with fires blasting out of his mouth, literally. "We are THE strongest guild!"

"I was up in the mountains fighting and training under the strongest..." 'Of this world,' he added mentally, not counting himself.

"Oh yeah?! Who?!" Natus growled.

Ichigo looked at the fiery mage, at least that's what Ichigo thought Natsu was, and grinned. "Acnologia ... the Black Dragon."

Natsu froze and stared at Ichigo with wide eyes.

"Y-You're a dragon slayer?"

Acnologia, who was standing right next to Ichigo in her human form, brought her fist back and smashed it into Ichigo's jaw, causing his head to snap sideways. "Gack!"

"You're not supposed to tell anyone that, idiot dragon slayer," she hissed on a whisper level.

"Oh, I'm not?" Ichigo then frowned. Then he turned to Natsu with his usual scowl. "Well ... "

"But you learned its magic, no?" he asked with an arch eyebrow.

"Kinda."

"Kinda? What's that supposed to mean? It's either you learn something or you don't," a new voice said as she interjected.

The traveling pair and the fire dragon slayer turned around to look at an armored woman with a sword at her hips.

"Erza!"

'Oh, the stupid mage that I came across ... before I found this guy,' she thought as she glanced at Ichigo once. 'Heh, good times. I sure beat the crap out of her.' She smirked at the memory.

"So?" Erza asked as she leaned on her left leg. Acnologia grinned. So, the girl was still injured from challenging her. "Did you learn from the black dragon Acnologia or not?"

Ichigo glanced at his partner for a second before sighing and shrugging. "Yeah, few magic here and there. Nothing too fancy in my opinion."

A vein popped up on Acnologia's forehead. She twisted around like the whirlwind and struck out like a eagle at Ichigo, jabbing him in the side.

CRACK

Everyone around them flinched.

"My dad's magic is not WHAT?! It's the most destructive and beautiful magic, you dipshit!" she growled as she looked at Ichigo. She seethed at what Ichigo just talked about her magic her father -the first Acnologia- created.

And then she realized what she just said.

She turned to the crowd around her, most of whom were looking at her with shock on their face.

"What?" she growled, anger slowly coming back to her. Telling her to just wipe out the town and be done with it. It was the easiest solution to pleasing that anger. 'Maybe I should... this was a bad idea anyway-'

"Well, we're both dragon slayers, if that's what you call us," Ichigo said as he sat up and scratched his head. Then he glared at Acnologia that promised pain and suffering.

"You're a dragon slayer, too?!" someone in the crowd shouted, and for some reason, it didn't sound accusing to either of the black dragon/slayer. Acnologia's face lost the frown she didn't know she gained as she stared at the crowd.

"Too?" she asked. "There are more in this town?" she asked.

"I'm a dragon slayer!"

The two turned to face Natsu.

"This shrimp is a dragon slayer?" Acnologia frowned.

"Hey!" Natsu growled. "... Fight me!"

"Please excuse Natsu's behavior," Erza sighed as she grabbed Natsu by the back his jacket. "He loves to fight people who are stronger than him."

"You want a fight, kid?" Ichigo asked as he bent down to Natsu's eye level.

"Hell yeah! I'm going to smash in your face!"

Ichigo scoffed. "Like you can," he said. "Alright, I'll take you on. I want to see what another 'dragon slayer' can do..." he said as he stood back up.

Everyone in the crowd began to back away. "Natsu is fighting again!" a random townswoman shouted.

Erza shrugged as she backed into the crowd as well, but not before she tossed Natsu into the middle of the ring. "Don't cause any damage to the nearby townshouse, or you're going to be paying it out of your own pockets!"

Acnologia looked around before doing the same as the insects (read humans).

Ichigo just stood there as Natsu shot up and stood before him. "You kind of remind me of an idiot I beat up some time ago," Ichigo said as he cracked his neck. "I just hope you don't have the same personality as him."

Natsu grinned. "I just fight to make myself stronger so that I can meet Igneel one day!"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Is he a rival?"

"Igneel is the fire dragon, you idiot!" Acnologia shouted from the sidelines. "It must mean that this boy is a fire dragon slayer! Pretty weak guy if you ask me!"

Ichigo shrugged as he brought out Zangetsu on his back. He walked over to the edge of the crowd opposite of Natsu, and slammed the sword into the cobblestone ground. Then he walked back to the center of the giant human ring, and faced Natsu.

"Why aren't you going to use that sword? It looks pretty strong," Natsu asked.

"If I used it in any manner other than defense, there won't be a whole body left to tend to," the taller of the two dragon slayers replied as he put his hands on his waist. "I'll also give you a free shot at me. Come on."

"Fine with me, just don't hold back against me, or it won't be fun for both of us!" Natsu shouted as he lit up Fire Dragon's Roar around his fists. "Fire Dragon's Claw!" he shouted as he launched himself at Ichigo.

Just as he was about to strike Ichigo in the chest, Natsu twisted on himself, causing the fires to twist as well.

BOOOMMMM.

Natsu grinned as he jumped away from Ichigo after successfully landing his strike. The Fire Dragon's Claw, when landed correctly, is strong enough to cause dragons to tumble backward. 'There's no way I can lose once he let me hit him like that-!' he thought triumphantly, but his own thoughts were cut short when he heard an annoyed sigh.

The fire dragon slayer gulped and turned around just as the white smoke caused by his Fire Dragon's Claw began to dissipate.

There stood Ichigo in the middle of the smoke with a pitying look on his face. "Weak."

"W-What?" Natsu stuttered. Then he growled. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" he roared and shot a flame bullet at Ichigo.

Despite the obvious danger level that the Fire Dragon's Roar was, Ichigo once more stood in its path with no thought of removing himself from the path of the attack.

But he did raise his left hand, palms out.

The Fire Dragon's Roar struck the palm ... and cancelled out on the spot.

"S-Sugoi," Erza admitted as she watched Ichigo withstand two of Natsu's dragon slayer magic attacks; even she had to perform some kind of active magic or dodge against those attacks. "... I wonder what kind of training he went through."

Ichigo sighed. "I expected more from a fellow student of a dragon," Ichigo said loudly as he let his left arm drop and allowed his right arm to move up, using his index finger to point at Natsu.

Acnologia flinched even before the spell's name left Ichigo's mouth.

"Bakudo #1," Ichigo began, confusing those present with the foreign language. "Push."

Natsu stood there as nothing happened for a second. He grinned and moved forward for another Claw, only for his stomach to receive an impact sending him skidding across the cobble road. He rolled a bit before he shot back up, but -. 'It hurts!' he thought as his left hand cradled the wounded abs. He looked up and glared at -.

"Huh?" the fire dragon slayer uttered very loudly when he realized that Ichigo was no longer where he used to be.

"Now imagine what happens if I can also move at extreme speed."

Natsu whirled around, ignoring the pained complaint of his abdomen, and he began to sweat.

Ichigo was right behind him. The bastard had travelled such a distance in short time.

And he was pointing that finger against his chest.

"Push."

Natsu's eyes widened as he heard that word. Then another impact struck him in the chest and he was sent flying again. Only this time, Ichigo was right next to him all the way. "Push." Natsu was fired up into the sky, and Ichigo was over him again. "Push." Natsu roared as he was now sent down towards the ground.

* * *

"Natsu!" Erza shouted as she jumped forward to catch the pink-head, but Acnologia stood in front of her. "Move!"

"Nuh uh uh, human," Acnologia grinned as she lit her arms up with Black Dragon's Roar. "This is their fight, I ain't letting you save your friend when he obviously called for it."

"But your friend is killing Natsu!" Erza objected as she attempted to jumped over the shorter girl, only for the said girl to grab Erza by her ankle with her Roar enforced hands and throw her back into the crowd.

"Killing?" Acnologia sneered. "The bastard is playing with your friend. No more than that. If he really wanted to kill you, your friend wouldn't even notice his death." She then crouched down as Erza attempted to push through again. "So bring it, girl! See if you can save your friend from his own predicament!"

* * *

Natsu thought he was going to crash onto the cobble floor, but just before his face struck the said cobble road, his body stopped.

"E-Eh...?" he muttered as he looked towards the sky.

Ichigo stood in front of him again. This time, he was holding Natsu by his ankle.

"You're weak, Fire Dragon Slayer," Ichigo said as he reached down and pulled Natsu by the collar. He then set Natsu on his own two feet. "I was expecting more, but hey, you're still a kid."

"H-How are you so strong...?" Natsu asked as he wobbled on his own feet. He didn't remember a time when he was so beat. Not even the bar fight that Fairy Tail is famous for never made him become sore this much. He could already tell that the entirety of his body was going to end up bruised.

Ichigo chuckled softly. "If you grow on a battlefield, you grow stronger, whether you want too or not," he said as he ruffled with Natsu's hair. "So I'm going to say the same thing I said to Ac -her when I first met her," Ichigo said as he slightly bent down to Natsu's eye level again. "One." Natsu gulped. "Be kind to strangers." He nodded. "Two. Ethics. Don't go around picking fights. Be more civilized. Sure, it could be part of your training to go and pick fights, but what happens when you pick the fight with wrong people? What are you going to do then?"

Ichigo patted Natsu again with a grin on his face. "Just telling you to stop being so rash and stupid."

Natsu nodded dumbly.

Erza and Acnologia also stopped by this time, just staring at the two males who seemed to have come to a stop.

"Now, is there a good restaurant or a bar? I got plenty of money," Ichigo asked as he stretched his arms. He walked over to Zangetsu and plucked the sword out of the cobblestone road.

"Well, Fairy Tail has a bar," Erza said as she backed off from Acnologia. Now, the crowd was dispersing, seeing as no more fight was going on. "We can take you there... And I'd also like to request a sword spar with you, just to see the level of swordmanship you declare to have."

Ichigo stared at her for a while before shrugging. "Alright. Oh, by the way, does this city have a library? And is there a magic or magic tool that allows me to read fast?"

"Why do you ask?" Erza asked as she led the group towards Fairy Tail guild.

Ichigo scratched his head. "Well, this is my first time in this part of the world," he lied partially, leaving out the part that he had travelled through dimensions and space to get her all because of an asshole of a scientist. 'That reminds me. I have to beat the crap out of him.'

"So how old are you guys?" Ichigo asked as he looked to the two of Fairy Tail's mages just as they turned a corner to the main road of Magnolia City.

"I'm 17," Erza said.

"14!"

"Ehh... You guys are pipsqueaks," Acnologia said with a tone of disappointment.

"Ah-san, don't call them pipsqueaks. It hurts their feelings," Ichigo scolded.

Acnologia looked at Ichigo with a raised eyebrow and a annoyed face. "One, pipsqueaks are meant to be called pipsqueaks. Two, did you just shorten my name to Ah?"

"Yeah, I did. It's better than using your full name," he whispered the last sentence.

Acnologia glared at him for a moment before turning away. "Be that way..."

"Here it is..."

The two of them looked forward, and saw a rather big building in the midst of smaller buildings that made up the Magnolia City.

"Huh," Ichigo said as he looked at its features. The structure itself was made in resemblance to the pyramid, though much more blockier, having only three steps and a crown at the top. It had Asian building features as its roof indicated. But rest of the features, like the wall frame, window design, and entrance, was of European nature. It looked pretty good to Ichigo. "Alright, let's go in."

* * *

Makarov watched everyone in the guild with a smile on his face.

It was a normal day in Fairy Tail guild.

Almost everyone was happy.

Almost.

It was Natsu that wasn't happy. He wasn't sad or angry either. He just wasn't happy.

Why?

Because he had been so easily defeated by this new dragon slayer. Sure, the guy looked 6 years older than him, but it doesn't remove the fact from the history that he lost. At first, he had been dumbfounded and still shocked that he lost, physically and mentally. Then he was angry. He was fuming, to be exact; Erza would've made a sushi out of him if he complained too much in a single day.

And now, finally, he was contemplative. He usually did contemplate anything; he just went and smashed them with his fists and magic. But once in a while, he did think.

Why did he get beaten so easily?

Was it his lack of power?

Lack of speed?

Lack of tactics?

"It was lack of durability."

Natsu turned around on his seat to stare at Erza. "Durability?" he asked as he saw Ichigo and the black haired woman talk to Levi about a library.

"Like most mages, your body is weak."

"It ... is?"

Erza nodded. "I think Kurosaki there helped you set your next goal, aside from finding Igneel."

"He did?"

The red haired re-equip mage chuckled. "You can surely train your body so that you can take more hits than you did today."

Natsu grew a tick mark. "Those 'Push'es of his hurt like hell," he groaned. "It wasl ike your gorilla fist-"

SMACK

Natsu's face, say hi to the floor. Floor, say hi to Natsu's face.

Natsu's head, say bye to Erza's fist.

Natsu slowly lifted himself off the wooden floor of the guild before seating back down where he was sitting before Erza knocked him off.

"Training my body, huh?" he muttered.

* * *

"So there is a library within your guild?" Ichigo asked with his ever present scowl on his face.

Levi nodded. "There's also a town library not too far from here, but our library has more books, both for entertainment and information," she explained as she drew a quick sketch of two stacks of books. The taller of the two stacks represented the rough estimate of how many books were in Fairy Tail's guild library compared to town library, which was about four time smaller.

"Can I just use it then? Or is there something needed from me?"

"Yeah..." she laughed nervously. "You have to be a guild member."

"...Oh," he said.

Acnologia smacked the back of his head. "It's not a simply 'oh', you idiot!" she hissed. "You're going to be part of this fi-"Ichigo quickly grabbed her and covered her mouth, much to her protest, as evident in her arms and legs swings.

"Okay, I'll join. Along with her. She has no issue with this as well, right?" he asked her.

She just stared at him, horrified by what he was forcing her to do. "Hell naw-!" she shouted once she was free of his hand, only for it to cover her mouth again when she spoke.

"You're gonna stick with me anyway, right?" he asked her, not really caring if anyone was listening. She glared at him. "And I'm going to stay in the guild. You might as well just sign up and take advantage of the time we'll be standing here. Besides, I just heard from Erza about the jobs that a guild offers."

Acnologia still glared at him. It clearly meant 'Fuck you.'

"Yeah, yeah," he said as he let go of her and turned his attention back to Levi. "So how do I sign up?"

Levi smiled. "First, welcome to the guild," she said with a blindingly cute smile. "You can go to the headmaster for the emblem of our guild. He's the short old man sitting at the bar."

"Alright," Ichigo replied as he gave her a wave of hand before heading towards the bar. But on the way to the said bar, something flew across the room and struck the side of his head. There was the sound of solid beer mug dropping to the floor and splashing its contents all over the shinigami and the floor.

For a moment, Ichigo simply stood there as did the rest of those within the guild.

He then turned around, rolling his sleeves up. "Alright, who threw that mug?" he growled with his scowl.

"I did."

Ichigo turned his head around to look at a blonde man on the second floor of the guild.

"Who are you?"

The man grinned. "Laxus Dreyar, an S-rank mage of Fairy Tail. The strongest mage of Fairy Tail, also."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Well, I better pay your highness back for this then," Ichigo said as he picked up the mug on the ground and threw it at Laxus as hard as he can without killing the blondie.

It was too fast for most of those in the guild to see. In fact, only three other people in the guild caught glimpse of the speeding mug before it struck Laxus in the chin.

Laxus stood for a second, his head rolled back with his chin facing up. Then he slowly and surely fell backward, landing on the second floor with a thud.

"Serves you right, cocky asshole," the shinigami grumbled. "You can't even withstand that. I'm sure your guild master could many times."

Makarov Dreyar, the guild master of Fairy Tail, on the other hand, was sweating. The mug looked painful to be struck with in the chin.

He absentmindedly rubbed his beard and chin as Ichigo approached him once more.

"Here to join the guild, old man," he said.

Makarov grinned. "Been some time since someone of your caliber decided to join our guild."

"Well, I need help, and your people look like someone I can hang out with. Call it a meeting of chance. I hadn't even planned on joining a guild, really."

Makarov grinned. "Where do you want the insignia of our guild?"

Ichigo thought about it, though he didn't show it on the surface. "On the back," he said as he took off the t-shirt he was wearing, one that he had been wearing when he came through the portal from his world -'Chant: Kill Urahara Kisuke when I go back'. But when he did so, all of the guild saw the scarred and chiseled body of Ichigo.

"Damn," Natsu muttered from where he was on the other side of the guild. "No wonder he beat the shit out me... I want a body like that too."

"Gah... Did the guild crash in again?"

Except for a few of the mages, all of those in Fairy Tail guild lounge turned towards the source of the grouchy voice asking a question.

"Gildarts!"

* * *

Ichigo gave the red-haired man a glance before he turned back to Makarov. "So I heard that I could take jobs and visit the library if I joined the guild. Where's the library?"

Makarov pointed towards one corner of the guild, away from the doors of the guild lounge itself and most of the guild's mages.

At this point, Acnologia had stood and followed Ichigo.

Once Acnologia was next to him, Ichigo gave the old man thanks and headed down to the library along with the dragon-in-disguise.

Makarov followed them leave to the library with his narrowed eyes once Ichigo turned his back to him.

'He's strong, as I already told him. But how strong is he to knock out Laxus like that?' the guild master questioned himself. 'Perhaps I should have him spar with Gildarts over there.'

He shook his head. That was a stupid idea. Gildarts would level the town with his two magics, and the new boy didn't seem like a pushover. If they actually managed to prolong the fight with the new boy pushing Gildarts even once, things would get dicey for them.

Sure, Fairy Tail would have to work to fix any and all damages the two would make. That was of no consequence. Important consequence at any rate.

What Makarov worried about was the Council.

They complained too much.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello again, this is Arms of Loneliness, and you are reading, the Black Dragon Slayer, Kurosaki Ichigo, the REWRITE. The original was good in and of itself until it reached the ending where I tried to just write it off. So I tried to do something else about it. And this is the result.**

**Okay, the introduction aside, welcome to the fourth chapter of the story, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you have your fruit snacks, slim jims, jamba juice, starbucks, or whatever other delicious goods you have at your side as you read this story. **

**Now, from the reviews I read, I saw that some of you were pointing out the fact that I made the ages different from the original. I did this because I wanted to have a time skip before Lucy joins the guild, and yes, I intentionally made the age gap between Natsu -and by extension few others like Gray, Lisanna, and Lucy- and Erza -also by extension Cana, Mirajane, and Cana.**

**Chapter 4: Studying for a Way Home**

It has bee four months since Ichigo arrived at and joined Fairy Tail. Acnologia followed him around, grumpily most of the time. Ichigo took few A-rank jobs that had to do with demon or monster eradication, and quickly took care of them, earning himself a name as Fairy Tail's "Demon Hunter." When some of the mages in Fairy Tail commented on it, Ichigo just shrugged and walked into the library, where he spent most of his time. He used the money he earned and bought a house where edge of Magnolia intersects with the mountains and the lake.

But he still spent most of his time inside Fairy Tail's library, trying to learn about this world and find a way to get back.

So far he understood the basis of magic and the basic required for a mage to perform a simple magic. He also found out that there was a way for him to get back home; it was a magic called World Traveller. Unfortunately, the energy required to open a single wormhole exceeded even his natural reserves of reiatsu and the new magic that he was collecting subconsciously by three times. Considering that Makarov, the guild master of Fairy Tail, considered Ichigo to be on the level of upper tier of Ten Wizard Saints by reserves alone, the energy required to perform World Traveller was extraordinarily huge.

But the worst part of it was that he needed the coordinates.

The magic tome that he bought about the World Traveller -from the black market at a ridiculously high price- explained the coordinates as a point that either a beacon existed for or our body and mind understood together.

AKA it had to be instinctual. Otherwise, the coordinates would be messed up and the user of World Traveller or other teleport magic would also be highly unstable or just wrong altogether.

The first option about the beacon? Impossible. He would've had to plant a magic beacon from where he came from, but he didn't know. Urahara could probably build one, but with no way of contacting the mad scientist...

Ichigo realized that he was truly stranded.

* * *

"Hey brat, it's been almost ten days since you've been stuck in here! Get the fuck out and take a job!"

Ichigo turned away from the book he was reading, and stared at the grumpy dragon-in-human-disguise.

From Acnologia's point of view as well as those of the rest of the guild, Ichigo was becoming a true pain. A scholar pain, but a pain nonetheless. He was stuck inside that library for so long. He just kept on reading and jotting down notes. He was so focused on it that he ignored some of the events, like some of the birthdays and weddings, that were celebrated in the guild.

And it was also a pain to just look at. He had stacks of books surrounding him on all sides while he sat at the floor with a book in his lap and a note on the ground next to him or on his thigh with a pencil or ink feather pen on his hand. His hair was messy from lack of care, and he only came out to shower once every two days. No one knew how he ate.

The pain stared at Acnologia for a while before he turned back to the book at hand, _Interaction Between Magic, Magic Flow, and Inorganic_ by Nagi Thunderstick. It was filled with equations, theories, and some more equations, none of which made sense to Acnologia.

She shook her head and made her way out of the underground library to the guild lounge upstairs.

When she opened the door from the stairs into the lounge, everyone was looking at her, all of their activities having come to a halt.

"What?" she growled.

"Well... did you get him out?" one of the dumber mage, Natsu, asked.

Acnologia glared at the fire dragonslayer. She whirled, picking up a beer mug, whirled back around in one fluid motion, and chucked the mug at Natsu's head. The mug flew across the lounge like a baseball before a loud audible crack resounded throughout the lounge, and then followed by a thud.

Gray, who was sitting across from Natsu, slowly looked at Natsu from Acnologia. Then he slowly made his way around the table.

"He fainted."

Everyone's eyes rolled back to Acnologia, who proceeded to leave the lounge and head back "Home."

Makarov looked at the mages of his guild and shrugged. "Alright, get back to what you were doing. We all know he's gonna be in there until tomorrow night," he said from the rail on the second floor. He jumped down and sat on the bar stool.

"Nee, guild master, what do you think Ichigo is working on downstairs?" Mirjane asked the guild master as she wiped the glass beer mug that she held as she looked at Makarov for answers. Sure, she was there when Ichigo and Acnologia, whom she knew as Ah-chan, joined the guild, but aside from that first meeting and few others where Ichigo registered what job he was going to go on, she didn't have much interaction with him. She also never saw what he was working with because, for strange reasons, the door leading to the library didn't budge for her. Surprisngly, it wasn't because she was losing strength of her former power; Acnologia explained to her that Ichigo was beginning to fume at the other mages for interrupting him so much, so he casted a weight spell on it. Only Makarov and Acnologia were able to move the door when Ichigo was inside. Fortunately, no one else but Levy -who was allowed in by Ichigo as she didn't bother him- used the library.

Makarov just scoffed with what Mirajane was asking. "I'm just as curious as you are, Mirajane. Just as curious as you are."

* * *

Next Day...

Everyone was minding their own business in the bar. Cana, despite being a young girl of only 18, was drinking herself to high heavens. Natsu and Gray were at each other's throat. Acnologia was having a small talk session with Mirajane, the former Demon of Fairy Tail and now the bartender and cover girl of Fairy Tail. Several mages were looking at the job request boards. Makarov was on the second floor, just looking over his children, with a beer mug in his right hand and his trusty staff on his left.

Crreeeakkk...

The door to the library/dungeon opened, causing some ominous mist to seep out like a low hanging cloud.

It was Natsu that first noticed that the door had opened. He stopped his punch midway and just stared at the door. Gray followed his rival's eyes, and saw the door. When he did, he stopped and stared at it too.

Because never in the last month did that door open unless it was Ichigo coming out.

Acnologia broke off the eye contact she was holding with Mirajane for the last five minutes and frowned. "Well, he's finally coming out, huh?" she remarked.

Mirajane was confused at first at Acnologia's comment, so she turned around to look where Acnologia was staring at. She noticed the door to the underground dungeon opening, and her eyes widened.

"He's coming out?"

"He probably ran out of food," the black haired beauty replied.

Then the door slowly creaked open wider.

Tap. Tap.

Thud. Tap. Tap. Tap. Thud.

Tap.

Creeeaaakkk...

Everyone stopped and stared.

It was a orange haired man with a pair of foggy glasses. He wore a slim, black leather jacket, a plain black t-shirt underneath the fur jacket, and a pair of black leather pants, complete with black leather boots. All of the mentioned clothes were dirty, however; most likely cause was sleeping inside the library, and not moving much. He held several books in both of his hands, and a giant clever of a sword on his back. The sword was wrapped around by a long strap of cloth that resembled thick roll bandage for field use.

Ichigo stopped underneath doorway with cringing eyes.

"So, you finally out, Ichigo?"

The said man looked around until he saw Acnologia waving her hand. He shrugged, causing dust to fall off his clothes. He walked over to her table. He set his books down and yawned. "Hi," he said quietly.

"Did you run out of food?"

Ichigo nodded. "And books."

"Hmm?"

"I also ran out of books to read."

"Oh." Acnologia then proceeded to trip while sitting, causing her body to fall backward. She climbed back up hastily. "What?!"

"I read everything that library had to offer," he added.

"Oh..." she blinked and then froze. "You read the entire library...?"

"Yup. Those weird magic items that Levy gave me were very useful," he said as he pulled out a pair of glasses with thick frame that had runes etched into it. "It was like time slowed down." He put them away. "Where is Levy anyway?"

"She went on a mission with some of the other mages," Mirajane offered.

"Oh ... is that so?"

Ichigo then yawned. He craned his neck the furthest he could in every direction, making loud popping noises that filled the silent guild lounge.

Silent. 'This guild is never silent,' Ichigo thought as he looked around, and only then did he notice that all eyes were on him. "What?" he scowled, not really liking the attention he was getting.

"You're finally out of the library, you nerd!" Natsu shouted as he jumped up on top of the table that he had been sitting in moments ago, frozen in shock when Ichigo emerged from the library. Now that he had goteen over the shock, he was right back to challenging Ichigo. "Let's fight right now!" He jumped at Ichigo with flaming fists. Ichigo turned to face him as the brat flew across the room. Then ...

He jumped towards Natsuwith his right arm out like a hook. When Natsu swung his fists, Ichigo ducked under them, and the hook came around Natsu's neck. The two forces collided at Natsu's neck and Ichigo's arm, and they dropped to the ground like that.

Crunch...

Gray flinched. "That idiot," he muttered as he watched bubble froth appear in Natsu's mouth after that landing.

Then it all got lively.

"Wow. Even after spending weeks in that stuffy dungeon downstairs, you're as strong as ever, aren't you, Ichigo?" Makarov chuckled as he took a beer that Mirajane offered.

Ichigo shrugged and then shook a bit to the side as two men crashed into both of his sides and swung their arms around Ichigo. The man to Ichigo's left was Wakaba Mine, a man with a pompadour, and the man to his right was Macao Conbolt, a blue haired divorced man dating a younger girl. Ichigo always called the latter of the two as "Mr. Pedo" or "Craddle robber." Macao would always be frustrated when Ichigo called him those nicknames, but got over it when Ichigo offered him few free drinks.

"So, what were you doing down there, boy!" Wakaba asked as he doned his cigarette.

"Studying as usual, of course," Ichigo replied as he gave a nod to Mirajane, who brought three cups for the three men.

All three grabbed their beer mug and drank from them together. "What were you studying about, huh?" Macao asked.

"'How to not be a Mr. Pedo.'"

"Oh, okay," Macao said as he sipped some more beer. "Wait, you just insulted me!"

Ichigo laughed at the man's slow reaction.

Acnologia grumbled, unsatisfied that Ichigo was not going to be leaving for a job immediately. However, something was off with him. He never did laugh like that when he was with her. It made her glare at the two men next to him.

Then the guild doors creaked open, and Erza walked in in her usual armor, the Heart Kruez Armor

"Erza's back!" one of the guild mage sitting in the back of the guild lounge announced the red-haired mage's return.

"Erza! Erza! Ichigo finally got out of the library!" someone else said.

Ichigo turned around with a beer mug in his hand, and blinked when Erza approached him with a sword in hand.

"The spar you promised me is long overdue, Ichigo!" she shouted as she lunged at him, intending on not letting him get away this time, like the last three times.

"Huh, why she doing that?"

Makarov looked up to see Laxus. "You see, whenever Erza came and challeneged Ichigo, he would take a job and run away. And then he would always come back right when Erza left for her job, and he would go into that library of his."

Laxus cackled. "Serves the nerdy loner right. Have fun dodging Erza-" His mouth hung there, just slightly open as he took in the event before him.

When Erza lunged at Ichigo, Ichigo gracefully pulled out the giant clever he was holding and began to parry all of Erza's strikes with only few moves. But with those few movements, Ichigo's Zangetsu would slice back and forth like he was handling a thin and long stick.

Others began to back away from the fighting duo.

Macao and Wakaba were gluedto the chair, scared that if they managed to move at the wrong moment, they can be struck by either blade.

"I knew you were a swordmaster!" Erza grinned as she backed off.

Ichigo grumbled.

"Fine, fine, I'll give that spar that you've been begging for," he said absentmindedly as he stood up from the bar stool and let the beer mug on the counter. However, he had to duck just as he got up to avoid Erza's sword.

"I did not beg for a spar!"

"You were chasing after me like a lost puppy." He sidestepped and then jumped further to the left as Erza swung harder at him.

"I did not!"

Ichigo chuckled.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Cana shouted as she shot up from her chair. "Let's take some bets on who's going win between these two!" she declared enthusiastically, and many of the mages inside the guild lounge agreed with either a roar of approval or laughter.

"Let's take this outside," Ichigo said to Erza as he sheathed his still roll bandage-bound sword unto his back. Erza frowned before she did sheathed her sword as well.

"1000 on Erza!" someone shouted in the background.

Ichigo just grumbled. He knew that it was going to be troublesome getting to the spar itself with Erza, but he didn't think it would be this troublesome...

* * *

Forest of Magnolia  
Edge of Magnolia City

A large crowd composed of both civilians and mages around the town had gathered on the hillside of the open clearing where Erza and Ichigo were going to have their spar. Despite it being called a spar officially, everyone took it as more a challenge that Erza threw at Ichigo.

Erza was currently the Strongest Female Fairy Tail Mage, and Ichigo was known as the Scowling Prince of Fairy Tail. They were both incredibly strong and experienced, despite their ... lack of age - 17 and 21.

"So, how should we do this?" Ichigo asked as he looked around.

This open clearing was apparently owned by Fairy Tail guild as well under the name of Makarov Dreyar. It was a American football field sized land that just had packed dirt ground for most of the central clearing. On the sides of the clearing were racks filled with all sorts of weapon and some benches on the side, which is where the large crowd was sitting at.

"I want to go all out with you," Erza declared forcibly, getting large gasps from the crowd gathered.

"T-That's insane! You're going to kill Ichigo if you do that!" Mirajane objected hotly.

Ichigo just frowned. How strong was Erza that Mirajane declared her full-power as overpowered? 'On the other hand, I never really fought a S-rank mage all out. I'm classified as a A-rank mage because I didn't take that S-rank Examination Test or whatever.' He cracked his neck. 'So I get to see the true potential of a S-rank, huh?' "Alright, bring it, Scarlet," Ichigo replied seriously as he pulled out Zangetsu from his back. The roll bandage unwrapped as he did so, and the black beauty showed itself to the world.

Erza tensed when the bandages came off the sword. 'So he is taking me on seriously.'

"Requip: Heaven's Wheel Armor!" she shouted her magic, causing it to activate. Her Heart Kruez Heart disintegrated and the four-winged, silver armor formed in its stead.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. Requip magic? Wasn't it meant to be just used to change clothes? "Interesting, you turned a normal magic into a battle magic with how you're doing it," Ichigo commented. "Shall we begin?"

Erza nodded firmly.

Makarov stood up from his seat and walked over to the edge of the packed dirt ground. "Hajime!"

Erza shot forward, intending on pushing Ichigo with her power. She summoned twelve swords in-flight, and speared them telekinetically against Ichigo. Ichigo took a defensive stance with his right foot back and Zangetsu facing the sky and horizontally from the ground right by his eyes.

Then he shunpo'ed, causing Erza's eyes to widen and for her to summon six more swords to defend herself. The swords finished forming a ring around her when Ichigo appeared in a different stance. He was now crouching low with his feet having shifted positons.

He struck horizontally, and sliced though two of the six new blades that Erza summoned. Erza whirled around, seeing as Ichigo was behind her, who gave her a look of approval. Erza whirled her waist and delivered a kick to Ichigo's head, only for him to duck and strike at Erza's stomach with the butt of the hilt. Erza grinned despite the pain and brought the remaining swords she had summoned down on Ichigo. "I win-!"

The swords struck Ichigo, only to be shattered into pieces.

Her eyes widened in shock. Swords shattered unto skin contact? How?!

Ichigo scoffed and threw her a palm strike right hwere he had struck previously with the butt of Zangetsu's hilt. Erza flew back and skidded on the ground as she tried to remain standing.

'That felt like getting a direct hit from sledgehammer!' her mind screamed at the pain shaking her core. She looked up, not wanting to lose track of Ichigo this time. 'Despite carrying a claymore-sized clever, he doesn't lack agility nor speed. I can't fight him with such a thin armor!' "Requip: Adamantine Armor!" Her thin Heaven's Wheel Armor disintegrated, replaced by a thick Adamantine Armor with shields on her forearms.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "That armor looks stronger than your other one," he said as he hefted Zangetsu on his shoulder. He stood up straighter, almost as if knowing that Erza won't be attacking.

"This armor has the strongest defensive properties among all my armors. You won't be able to cut through this armor with your sword," Erza declared even as she cringed from Ichigo's last strike.

"Really?"

Erza's eyes widened as she whirled around again, where the voice came from. However, Ichigo wasn't there.

"It wasn't that hard."

She twisted back again, but felt something off with her forearms.

She looked down and gawked.

Her two part shields...

They were both sliced into like cheese!

And Ichigo was standing right where he had been a mere second ago.

"But you were right about one thing: that armor was slightly harder to cut into," Ichigo said as he lifted his left index finger and pointed at her. "I'll award you with my original 'magic,'" he stated. "_Way of Binding #61: Six Rod Prison of Light (Rikujokoro)_." The tip of his finger glowed yellow, and before Erza could dodge, Requip, or react in any other way, six thin rectangular lights appeared in a circle around her. Then all of them came like light and struck her in the abdomen, forming a crystal-like formation.

And she couldn't move. She struggled, you could see it in her face, before she looked up at Ichigo with confusion and awe in her eyes. "How?!"

"A spell created from where I came from. My friend there, Kuchiki Rukia, helped me learn the Kido spells, which are essentailly different form of magic the ones that mages in Fiore use. I used a spell from Bakudo, a category of spells that consists of binding opponents." He grinned at her. "And that's a win," Ichigo said as he walked over to her and placed Zangetsu on her shoulder, blade contacting the armor. "You lose, Scarlet."

Mages of Fairy Tail, including Makarov, gawked at the speed at which the spar had been moving before abruptly ending with one spell.

Erza had been defeated so soundly.

Ichigo displayed speed that none of the mages in the guild, perhaps save Laxus, was capable of.

"W-Winner: Ichigo Kruosaki!" Makarov stuttered loudly.

Ichigo dropped the grin and undid Rikujokoro. "S-rank, huh. Not that hard to fight against."

Laxus scowled. "Ha! You beat that weakling of S-rank! So what?! I can probably beat you up!" he shouted, only for Ichigo appear behind him with him losing track of Ichigo. Laxus, in his seat, growled. He twisted around and made to strike at Ichigo, who only disappeared once more.

"I see no difference between you and Erza, Dreyar," Ichigo remarked as he appeared next to Makarov, causing some chuckles and giggles to erupt from the crowd.

"Don't mock me, Kurosaki!" Laxus shouted and chased after Ichigo, who began to make his way back to the guild lounge using shunpo with Laxus on his tail.

Makarov sighed. Goodness gracious. It was official, aside from Gildarts, all of the current S-rank mages of Fairy Tail were after Ichigo's ass.

* * *

**That's the end of this chapter. tell me what you thought in either pm or review. Read the top of the chapter, since it answers some of the question that you may have about the contents of this chapter, but if you didn't find it up there, I'll be explaining some things down here.**

**1. The reason why I made Ichigo speak out the english full name of Bakudo in english yet have in its Japanese name be used in conversation was because I felt that the english name would fit more in with the Western names that most characters of Fairy Tail possess, but wouldn't do so when Ichigo would talk about it. It's like Natsu and his fire dragonslayer magic. It's better to just use "Fire Dragon's Roar" than "_Karyū no Hōkō" _because it's easier to understand. But I wanted to emphasize the fact that Ichigo learned Kido in Japan with Rukia using JAPANESE, so in conversation, I had him name the kido spell and the cateogry using Japanese.**

**2. Laxus and Ichigo. I thinking about having Laxus view Ichigo as his POWERFUL role model, who Laxus wants to emulate because Ichigo has so much power. Laxus always wanted what was good of the guild-as evident in his Fairy Law affecting no one in Magnolia- but that kind of twisted when his father left the guild and he began to search for power. Of course, Ivan leaving the guild has happened already in this story, so Laxus is starting to become twisted. I don't intend to remove the Fairy Tail festival arc, just Laxus's attitude about it. So instead of despising the weak, he'll come to be focused with becoming stronger to care about calling others weak. This will be a steady progress, hopefully, so there!**

**3. Ichigo's personality. Personally, I don't like it. Why? Because it is the personally of every main character of shounen manga out there. If someone gets hurt, he goes after them nad beats them up. He can't win, then he stays up until he could. He is also romantically clueless and a prude. Boys don't remain prude for long. So I intend to change this very, very, very slowly. I won't have a idiotic Ichigo like I did in the older version of this story, but Ichigo won't definitely a prude by the end of this story. **

**So far, that's what I had in mind.**

**Cheers, and have a good day. **

**:3**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Apprenticeship**

"You're going to travel?"

"I want to become stronger," Ichigo replied to Makarov while Laxus slept to the side of the old man's office with his new yellow overcoat.

"But you are already strong enough, Ichigo," Makarov frowned as he said so. "You can probably best me, one of the Ten Wizards Saints."

Ichigo blinked and he scoffed.

"What's so funny?" the old man asked, a bit hurt with Ichigo's lack of respect for his status as a member of the Ten Wizards Saints.

Ichigo scratched his head before sighing. "I'll put it bluntly: it is not a probability but a impossibility for me to lose to you should I decide to use full extend of my true power."

Makarov raised an eyebrow. "You seem confident of your abilities."

Ichigo shrugged. "I've fought in a war with those who were considered gods in ancient history. Those who have lived for centuries. You kind of have to be strong to win against them."

"I see..." the guild master nodded, not really sure of how to take that sentence. "But why do you desire to be stronger?"

Ichigo stared out of the window behind Makarov. "... So I can better protect this guild," he replied before he rose up. "Anyway, I'm going to be gone for a year or two."

"How do you intend to become stronger?"

Ichigo stopped and stared at Makarov before sitting back down. He knew what the old guy was asking of him. In this world of magic, there were darker ways of becoming a very strong magician or even a fighter without magic. Ways that would make Ichigo monster in the eyes of the public. Makarov wanted to have some sort of assurance that Ichigo won't be dabbling in those dark arts.

"Well... Let's start by naming some of the things I know about the world and how our bodies can interact with the world." Ichigo reached into his leather jacket and pulled out five chess pieces: a black pawn, a black queen, a black king, a white bishop, and a white knight. He lightly tossed them in the air before activating a magic he learned during his stay. "Education Projection."

The chess pieces stopped midair before forming a pentagon between themselves. The pentagon then became a 3-D shape before the entrirety of the magic casted upon the chess pieces turned the chess pieces into dust, and a flat board projection appeared between the two men.

"First, there is magic in this world that uses the Eternano, the easiest and the most widely researched form of power. I have no interest in this power anymore."

That caused Makarov to be confused. "What are you talking about, boy? Magic is the only power aside from demonic powers-"

"Contrary to what most people believe," Ichigo said as he reached back into his leather jacket and this time pulled out a clear glass jar with rune trips running in multiple direction. Inside the jar was a creature shrouded in darkness. "Their demonic power is derivative of Eternano-based magic. It is simply much more fine-tuned for those whom you call demons to use."

Makarov nodded.

"Second type of power is the shamanism," Ichigo said as the English word Shamanism came up on the projection between himself and Makarov. "This type of power is used more as a relay between two or more different set of powers and support usage via reinforcing the body. Eternano is inferior compared to shamanism, but there are only few methods that shamanism can help others. It is, however, great for medical use.

"Third type of power is spiritual power, one that I am very familiar with. It uses the power of one's spirit to power any sort of performance. This power has the potential to be the strongest and the weakest due to the wide frequency of different spirits' level of power.

"The fourth type of power is the god powers. The closest magic to god powers are the god slayer magics that are considered to be Lost Magic. This is, on average, the strongest power, but also the most inaccessible power.

"Fifth type of power is the power of physical power. It is not the strongest due to the harsh training it requires, but it was a worthy power nevertheless."

"And the last power is the power of darkness."

"Power of Darkness? That sounds oddly like something that's going to end up bad, boy," Makarov interjected before Ichigo could explain.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "The dark arts of Eternano-based magic are imitations of the power of darkness. The base for the power of the darkness is the power of the Nether World, a world that was briefly recorded by one of your own magicians. The author's name was erased with history, but I was able to gather all of his research materials." Ichigo pulled out a dirty leather-bound book. He placed the book on the table before Makarov. "Read it."

"…" Makarov picked up the book and began reading. "And exactly how would you all of these powers…?"

"I can't."

Makarov stopped reading and gave the swordmaster a confused look.

"At least not within one or two years," Ichigo said as he looked at Makarov. "The best I can probably do is complete my training of Eternano-based power. I intend to mostly use my dragon slayer magic, which is far from complete just like the fire dragon we have. I actually think that he's closer to completing his training than I am of mine. But I could attribute it to the years of experience the boy probably has with his own magic…."

The guild master, however, wasn't listening by the point where Ichigo was talking about Natsu. He was engrossed in the book's content about the Nether World.

Abruptly, Makarov threw the book at Ichigo, who caught it before it struck his face.

"I better not see that book again, Ichigo," Makarov said lowly as he glared holes into Ichigo's own indifferent eyes. "The contents of that book are even worse than some of the darkest magic I've seen and heard… How did you even get that book in the first place?"

Ichigo merely flipped the book to the very last page.

"'I trust this book to you, Marvis'," Ichigo read the small lines in the center of the last page. "The name below has been scratched out by someone."

"That book was entrusted to our first guild master…? Wait, how did you find it in the library? It shouldn't even be in there," Makarov asked.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "I kind of dug around everywhere. Forgive me, though, I went to some of the restricted sections down there."

"There's a restricted section in the dungeons?" Makarov asked.

Ichigo sweatdropped. "Yeah…"

"..As long as you don't break the rules that the legal guilds follow, I'll allow you to go on this trip of yours, Ichigo."

"Thanks old man," Ichigo replied as he resumed his walk out of Makarov's office. He stopped underneath the doorframe and glanced over his shoulder. "When you say legal guild, you mean Fairy Tail, right?"

Makarov grinned. "Of course, boy!"

Ichigo gave the old man a wave of his hand beore leaving the office completely and disappearing from the man's view. And it was only then that Makarov looked down at the tome that Ichigo left behind on the guild master's table, and frowned deeply.

"Power of Darkness," he whispered to himself as he began to think about the implications of the said power and the other powers that Ichigo told him about would have on the kingdom … perhaps even the world.

**:AoL:**

Ichigo walked into the guild lounge, where everyone was having fun, drinking, talking, and playing with each other.

"Fight me, asshole!"

Ichigo sidestepped to far right just as the floor he had been previously standing on caved in. He looked up and gave the attacker a 'LoL' expression. "Too slow, electric eel," he told the grandson of the guild master.

"I am not an eel!" Laxus growled as he jumped down from the second floor and threw a Lightning Dragon's Claw at Ichigo, who parried the blow with a simple strike to Laxus's inner shoulder. The lightning surrounding the teenager's arm dispelled, and Ichigo caught the now less harmful fist and threw it back to Laxus's own face. The blonde teenager got hit by his own fist, and flew back into the counter of the bar. He laid there for a while, trying to get a grasp of himself before he shot up. "Damn it! Why can't I hit you!"

Ichigo gave the blonde dragon slayer a chuckle. "Because you're too slow, eel," he said as he walked over to where Acnologia was; right next to where Laxus struck the counter of the bar. She didn't pay much attention to the duo, still drinking the strong beer that she had Mirajane get her.

"Come on, we're going out again," he told her.

"Already?" Acnologia asked as she flopped off of her bar stool. She handed him the drink that she had been drinking, and he took it without protest before completely downing it. "By the way, you got another visitor, and he had this with him." She handed him a envelope with the insignia of the Magic Council and the Rune Knights.

It has been roughly a week since Ichigo sparred with Erza. During that time, the guild and the magic world of Fiore has been astounded by the easy victory that Ichigo gained over Erza, courtesy of the stalkerish self-proclaimed, #1 fan of Fairy Tail, Jason. Erza's popularity hadn't decreased nor the respect most magicians and civilians held for her; people just became more curious about the orange haired man and the beautiful, black haired escort by his side. People came from all over the kingdom to see him. He was like a celebrity... except he didn't want to be a celebrity.

Apparently, the Rune Knights wanted to recruit him.

Or something.

Ichigo opened the envelope in his hands, and pulled out a single sheet from within.

"'Dear Ichigo Kurosaki, A-rank mage of Fairy Tail...'"

_We, the Magic Council, would like to invite you to a public demonstration in which many mages will be allowed to progress into the S-rank without the necessary procession that occurs in each legal and independent guilds. Those invited may bring along friends and/or families to watch the demonstration._

_However, only those who were invited may participate in the demonstrations._

_There are three events that will occur in this public demonstration:_

_Event 1: Magic Chart Event_  
_Event to show off your raw power!_

_Event 2: Mob-Dungeon Tournament_  
_Event to show off your or your guild's reliability!_

_Event 3: Spar Tournament_  
_Event to show off that you may be the top dog!_

_Should you choose to accept our invitation, you shall be included in either the Spar-Tournament or the Mob-Dungeon Tournament. This will be of your choice when you come to the city of Crocus to check-in at the new Fiore Magic Colosseum._

_Once again, we of the Magic Council would like to invite Ichigo Kurosaki to represent the Fairy Tail in the First Bi-Annual Grand Magic Tournament of Fiore._

_This event will take place in Crocus, the Imperial City of Fiore, two years from the day this invitation letter was sent from Era, the headquarter of the Magic Council and the Rune Knights._

_Keep in mind that you were the first to be invited along with nine other mages outside of the Ten Wizard Saints and the Magic Council._

_Signed..._

"'Org of the Magic Council'," Ichigo finished out loud. Then he looked up and saw the glistening eyes of the guild members. "Okay, now wait a minute-"

"There will be no objection to this invitation, Ichigo," Acnologia grinned evilly as she gripped his arm tightly. "You will participate."

"Hey, this thing is too troublesome! It also interferes with what I was going to do!"

Natsu jumped right in front of him with a huge grin on his face. "Come on, 'chigo! I know you can beat the crap out of all those guys who're going to come!"

Ichigo scowled as he tried to pry Acnologia off from him. "It's none of my business," he growled.

The black dragon frowned at Ichigo's obvious want to get away. She knew that this would've been his reaction halfway through the invitation letter. But she wanted to see how strong he was, or otherwise, she wouldn't be able to decide whether or not Ichigo was worthy of being her mate-

Her cheeks blushed and she shivered. 'How can I think of mating with a anything that resembles a human? I must have been corrupted a lot to be thinking like this.' She shook her head. "Ichigo!" she shouted.

"What?!" Ichigo shouted back, feeling frustrated from all of the 'do it!'s and the steel-tight grip Acnologia had on him.

She smiled slyly before leaning into his ear.

Ichigo, not wanting Acnologia to do anything weird, scooted back, only to be met by the counter of the bar, allowing Acnologia to bring her lips to his ear.

Everyone stopped, watching what was happening between the two.

She began to whisper something to him.

At first, Ichigo's scowl was heavy set unto his face like it was never going to get erased off of the said face. Then slowly, his expressions relax and finally turned into a look of determination.

"So!" Acnologia exclaimed as she jumped back, letting go of his arm since she was sure that with her offer, she was going to have Ichigo participate in the tournament. "If you prove to me that you're strong enough to own that entire tournament, then I'll give you waht I promised! Otherwise, I'll be chasing after your ass in Dragon Force throughout whatever you were planning to do otherwise."

Ichigo's look of determination faded into one of a scowl once more before he sighed in defeat.

"Fine...I'll go..."

Acnologia pumped a fist of victory in the air.

It wasn't everyday she got a demi-god to do what she wanted him to do.

"But!" she shouted at him, catching everyone's attention again.

"W-What?" Ichigo stuttered, not sure to take that 'but' as a good or a bad thing.

"You can't use any magic! Pure physical strength and endurance! You can't get heals from anyone in any form!"

That got a really good attention from the rest of the guild.

"That's a rather harsh handicap," Natsu muttered. "I doubt even the old man can go through such tournament without magic." Gray, Mirajane, Laxus, Erza, Elfman, Levy, and the others nodded at this.

"Bah," Ichigo replied back, the scowl still in place. "Fine, but I better get something good in return when I'm done with that damn tournament."

Acnologia gave him the thumbs-up. "Alright. Good. Good." She then spoke up again after a while. "What were you trying to do anyway that would interfere with something that takes two years from now?" she asked him.

"Training."

Laxus immediately ran up to Ichigo's face. "Take me with you!" he shouted at Ichigo.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Cuz I know I can become stronger if I go on a training with you!"

Natsu and Gray shot forward as well. "Hell no! You ain't getting stronger just by yourself!" Gray growled.

"Take us with you too, Ichigo!" Natsu shouted along with the ice make mage.

Ichigo growled before he shunpo'ed out of the crowd formed by the three different element mages. "I ain't training anyone!" he growled before a set of memories struck him like a wagon.

Get my hat...

You'll die if you can't use your zanpakuto.

Survive...

Ichigo blinked. "Actually," he said as he turned to the three who asked to be with him on his training trip. "I'll give you three a test."

"A test?" Elfman repeated.

"Yup!" Ichigo said as he pulled out Zangetsu, causing the three mages before him to shrink a little. "We'll go to the sparring grounds, and you three will fight me. I will hold back, of course. But the objective of the spar is this: you must put a scratch on me."

Laxus, Grey, and Natsu grinned. "Hell yeah we can do that!" Natsu roared as he breathed fire.

Laxus just grinned. "Finally, I can spar you!"

Cana popped out of nowhere.

"I'm taking bets again!" she shouted as she pulled out a pair of basket and a scoreboard. Many members of the guild roared in approval before following the gambling manager of the guild out to the sparring ground.

Ichigo just shook his head.

* * *

Natsu and Gray were up in each others' face. "And I say this is impossible!" Gray shouted. "We can't even beat Erza when she goes along with us for a spar! How the hell are we going to beat someone who beat her like a child?!"

"Well, I'm gonna whether I can win or not! It's a mere scratch!" Natsu shouted back. "And with that scratch, we'll be able to get training that'll make us S-rank mages!"

Laxus simply grunted as he thought about ways to put that scratch on Ichigo.

Unlike the two hotheads behind him, Laxus knew that the scratch that he had to put on Ichigo will not be as easy as Natsu thought it would be. Laxus himself had been after Ichigo day after day since the man's spar with Erza. Yet, he had been parried, blocked, flung back, crashed, dodged, rolled over, thrown, toyed, and humiliated by the very same man.

'I just hope he goes as easy as he did when he was dodging me...' Laxus thought with a sweatdrop as he walked slightly ahead of the two younger mages. He knew it was going to be a asskicking of likes he hadn't received in his entire life, just like how Erza did, but he knew that even if he lost, this spar will be a great experience for him. Ichigo may even give him some pointers.

But all in all, Laxus had become truly curious of Ichigo. The mysterious Scowling Prince of Fairy Tail had appeared literally out of nowhere. He used Black Dragon Slayer magic, which seemed to be different from element based dragon slayer magic both he and Natsu used, yet same anyway. He also used other magics as well, which made him a Jack of All Trades, but not one that didn't have masteries.

The woman, who called herself father's daughter of the black dragon of Apocalypse, Acnologia, and named herself as Acnologia as well, seemed to be strong. She was not on Ichigo's level, Laxus could easily tell. But at the same time, he knew that he was nowhere on the heavenly figured, black hair beauty's power level. Hell, he'd be crying in happiness if he was on that level; it was the level of guild masters and Rune Knight's best soldiers.

He balled his hands tightly in anticipation and determination.

In this spar... he would give his all. HE had nothing to lose and whole lot to gain.

* * *

Ichigo had been silently glancing over his shoulder to stare at the three mages that had accepted his challenge.

Laxus seemed to have grasped the determination Ichigo wanted to see, but the other two didn't seem mature or intellectually capable enough to realize some of the things that they could have realized simply by sitting down and thinking.

'Laxus may be able to become my student, but the other two...' He shook his head.

"Laxus?"

Ichigo glanced at Acnologia who said that. "Yes," he simply replied.

The dragon girl simply grinned. "Oh good. Now I have a legitimate reason to have a decent human servant around."

Ichigo frowned. "He's not going to be your slave, Acnologia."

"I decide. Not you."

"Well, I'm going to, whether you like it or not," he replied with his tongue sticking out.

A vein popped up on her forehead before she decided to smash her fist into his face, tongue being squashed between her fist and his jaw.

"Aoh!" he shouted in surprise. "That hurtz!"

"It was meant to hurt," she replied with her own tongue sticking out.

Ichigo just scoffed at her and they continued along towards the sparring ground.

* * *

Ichigo stood in the sparring ground facing the three elemental mages.

"Well," Ichigo said as he pulled out Zangetsu from his back, immediately causing the other three to tense up. Even if that blade had yet to be turned against them, the size of that blade just made their bodies shiver.

Ichigo grinned evilly at their reaction. He gave his cleaver a glance before he lightly tossed it up in the air.

The giant cleaver flew up, but before it could come to a stop midair, Ichigo roughly grabbed and pulled on the chain attached to Zangetsu. The giant blade reacted to the pull, and began to spin forward.

It was slow at first, but it picked ups speed... Winds were generated, the blade itself became a fan of black blade.

It was like watching a tornado form around him.

Gray just paled. He was no fight loving idiot like Laxus and Natsu. OF course, those two were just grinning mad staring at the vortex before them.

Makarov sighed as he looked on from the benches. He raised his hand up, and brought it down swiftly. "Begin!" Then he just sat down, just as Laxus shot forward like a lightning towards Ichigo.

Ichigo watched Laxus come at him and narrowed his eyes. "Too early to face me head on, Laxus!" he shouted as he unleashed a wave of his reiatsu. The spiritual energy turned into a shockwave of sort, and quaked the world around him. Then the shockwave was released like an expanding horizontal disc. Laxus jumped over the horizontally moving shockwave before he brought his hands together.

"Lightning Dragon's-!"

"Too slow!" Ichigo shouted as he hurled Zangetsu at Laxus.

The lightning dragon slayer's eyes widened. Forgetting about the attack, he refocused his magic into forming dense electrical field around himself. Then when Zangetsu entered the field, he used all magic he could pump out to change its course with a dramatic swing of his arms to his right. Laxus's eyes widened, however, when he realized Ichigo's blade just kept coming. "Oh shit-" he muttered before the blade sailed by his cheeks like a massive crossbow arrow.

It was by then that Laxus began his descend and landed on his two legs on the ground, away from Ichigo, and on the other side of Natsu and Gray.

His hand shot up and caressed his cheeks. Then he pulled the hand back and stared at the blood on it.

Ichigo gave Laxus a expressionless look. "Told you I'd be holding back," he said as he disappeared.

Gray immediately put up a spiked ice ring around him for defense. But Ichigo wasn't going for him.

Natsu whirled around just in time to see Ichigo bring his fist into his abdomen. The teenager gasped in pain as he was flung back towards Laxus's direction. In midair, he got a hold of himself, and flipped around and landed on his foot not too far from where Laxus was.

Just as Ichigo's Zangetsu came down where his head had been in the air a second ago.

Natsu paled as he watched the sunlight glisten off the blade of the Scowling Prince. 'I was almost struck by that!' he mentally screamed, and it was only then that he knew that he had to take this seriously with all the juice that he can manage. "Crap..." he muttered.

Ichigo appeared in front of Gray with another shunpo, standing just outside of the multiple ice thorned rings. He grabbed the rings surrounding Gray. He stared right into Gray's eyes with his expressionless eyes, and Gray's fearful eyes stared back.

With a twist of his hand, the ice rings broke.

"I-Ice Make: Spear Hail!" Gray shouted in panic. Ice spears formed all around him and shot forward.

Ichigo dodged them easily and ended up within Gray's defense again. "Zangetsu!" he shouted.

The sword that had been still in front of Natsu trembled before dislodging itself from the ground, and flew straight towards Ichigo.

When it came to him, Ichigo took the sword and gave a swing, pointing at the ground.

The effect was instantaneous. Once packed dirt was cracked and sliced into, and what didn't get sliced and diced were thrown into the air like multiple, giant masses of clay dough. In essence, Ichigo just made a crescent shaped crater surrounding himself and Gray with a swing of his sword.

Gray was not left unharmed. The shockwave of the swing blasted at him like nothing else but the coldest blizzard could, and sent him flying back. He flew out of the sparring grounds and struck one of the empty bleachers.

"I gave you a chance to hit me, Gray!" Ichigo shouted to compensate for the distance between him and the subject of his attention. "But you panicked and let me through! Try again next time!"

With that, he turned to Natsu and Laxus. Despite knowing this was going to be the worst beating they may yet receive, they had grins on their face.

Not even A-rank missions offered something of this level to fight against. To risk against.

Ichigo, that day, had become the ultimate goal to surpass for the two dragon slayers of Fairy Tail.

But Ichigo also had plans.

He grinned at them.

"Don't blink, or you'll be on the ground," he said before disappearing.

* * *

The crowd was cheering on the three sparring mages still within the sparring ground. Of course, they all knew that Laxus and Natsu were no match for Ichigo. However, it was still a good match to watch.

Makarov, however, was at unease. Why was that? It was simple: he was scared.

Though he didn't show it, he didn't trust and was scared of Kurosaki Ichigo, who claimed to be the dragonslayer taught by Acnologia, the black dragon of Apocalypse, itself. The fact alone made him look like a bloodthirsty monster to many. Perhaps such was the reason why the Magic Council invited him to their tournament- to keep an eye on him.

Makarov wanted to trust Ichigo, but the boy has yet to act on the beliefs of the guild. He was always alone, sparring on occasion with others (mostly the girl that came with him). He even had a house so far away from the guild.

Indeed, Ichigo was a mystery, and this fight was the closest Makarov was going to get to observing him unless he outright stalked Ichigo.

And no, he refused to stalk his children.

* * *

Ichigo sidestepped just as the wisps of Natsu's red flames passed by him. He whirled around, keeping the momentum of the movement and landed a solid kick to Natsu's back. Natsu tumbled away, and flipped while tumbling. He struck down, and got himself to stop rolling.

"You're out as well," Ichigo replied as he turned to Laxus.

"What?! I'm not! I'm still standing-!"

Then as if on cue, Natsu fell down.

"Eh?"

"As I've said, you're out."

Mirajane quickly walked over to Natsu and helped him back up. "Let's go," she told him quietly. The red dragonslayer nodded hesitantly, shocked by how easily he had been beaten.

Now, Ichigo's sole focus was on Laxus, the S-rank mage of Fairy Tail.

Ichigo cocked his head back. "Well, this was disappointing," he told Laxus. "I was sure that the other two would get out easily, but I expected you to have at least acted on my lack of focus on you."

"I don't strike others when their back is turned," Laxus growled.

"Then you're not ready as well."

Laxus's eyes widened, and he ducked, just as Zangetsu passed by the space where his neck had previously occupied. 'I-I was almost just killed...'

Ichigo then proceeded to kick Laxus on the ass. Laxus shot forward and rolled in the dirt before he shot back up. "Lightning Dragon's Roar!" he shouted, and hte magic formed and shot forth from him in the form of electricity. Ichigo stared at it before he swung his blade in front of him, where the Roar was coming at him. Like before, the swing of his blade ripped apart the earth and this time, the Roar of a dragonslayer as well.

"HA!"

Ichigo raised his eyebrow. "What is it, Laxus?"

"I put a scratch on your leather jacket!"

Ichigo looked over himself. "Where?" he asked, confused by the statement. He looked back up, just in time to see Laxus with a wordless Lightning Dragon's Claw in his hands striking down with a determined look in his face.

...

And he made a scratch just as Ichigo struck him in the side with the flat side of Zangetsu.

Laxus flew away further and faster than the other two mages who were disqualified earlier, and struck the trees surrounding the sparring ground harder than Gray had.

The crowd was silent, waiting for Ichigo's verdict on Laxus.

Ichigo on the other hand stood frozen in the position he had struck Laxus. "Well, damn," he said as he sheathed Zangetsu on his back. "He actually did it," he said as he turned to towards the silent crowd, and some of those present gasped.

Laxus had struck well with his Claws. Ichigo's leather jacket had a crisp leather shoulder.

Makarov grinned. "Well, someone finally managed to hit ya!" he stated loudly.

The guild laughed.

Ichigo shrugged. "Yeah..." he said as he scratched the back of his head. "Well, damn. I go a apprentice to feed now."

* * *

His eyes fluttered open, and it was acompanied by a sore bottom and a constant sound of something being dragged.

Then he realized what had happened.

He had been knocked out of the ring.

He sneered before grumbling.

"What're you grumbling about?"

Laxus almost whipped his head around to see Acnologia and Ichigo, the latter who was dragging him. He just stared at the couple.

"What, something on my shirt?" Acnologia asked as she looked at herself.

"...Why am I here?" Laxus asked. "I got knocked out of the sparring grounds."

"But you manged to put a scratch one me first," Ichigo responded without looking back. He glanced over his shoulder. "And start walking. I'm tired of dragging your ass."

"O-Okay.." Laxus said as he stood up. "Where are we going?" he asked, though on the inside, he was secretly happy about this. He was going to become stronger.

"A demon stronghold. I'm low on some of the demonic essences," Ichigo declared as he pulled out a large glass bottle that had blackish red liquid at the bottom. "I need my spirits, you know?"

Laxus blinked. "What?"

Ichigo gave him a raised eyebrow. "Spirits. You know, alcohol and stuff," Ichigo said as he swished the bottle in his hand. "I got a magic that can make it, but I don't have the ingrediants for the damn thing I want the most..."

"You drink a lot?" Laxus asked as he began to follow them.

"Oh yeah," Acnologia replied. "We both do. Especially Demon Essence Spirit. That thing hits like nothing else. Vodka is just too much alcohol in it, but that thing in Ichigo's hand is just~ right," she said and stressed the 'just.'

"Okay... But how is this your training?" he asked Ichigo.

Ichigo gave a brief longing stare at the alcohol in his hand before he used Requip magic to stash it away. "The demon fortress I'm going to is actually the size of a labyrinth about seven or so times bigger than Magnolia. The walls are composed of dark magic-absorbing substance that I've yet to properly identify. I went there once before with Acnologia here. I also got the essence there as well."

"But... it's a demon hive," Laxus replied a bit hesitantly.

Ichigo gave him a grin. "Oh, is the big bad lightning dragon of Fairy Tail scared of demons?"

Laxus growled. "Of course not!"

"But you should be," Ichigo replied as his face became serious. "Most demons in it are A-rank or higher."

Laxus stiffened in his walk. "What?"

"I think about half of the demons there are S-rank or higher. Ooh! The strongest demon essence lacrima came from that big horned demon!" Acnologia remarked. "But you said it was a Ten Wizard Saint level, so you only killed one of them.

"W-Where is this demon fortress?" the lightning dragon asked, now truly realizing who he was walking with.

A powerhouse that makes him look like a child.

Ichigo hmmed. "Somewhere deep underground," he said as Acnologia snapped her fingers. They came to a stop. "We're here."

Laxus blinked, and looked around. He was still in a regular forest. Actually, it was middle of nowhere. "We are?" he asked.

"Yup!" Acnologia grinned as her arms were soon covered in black dragon scales. "Get ready, I'm going to activate the teleportation magic!"

Ichigo's arms were also soon covered with black dragon scales that seemed to grow out of him. He unsheathed Zangetsu off his back.

Laxus panicked a bit before he also surrounded himself with lightning.

Ichigo gave the boy a tap.

"What?" the dragonslayer asked.

"No magic."

"WHAT?!"

"Magic attracts them at too fast of a rate for you to survive. Do magic enhancements."

Laxus blinked as he looked at the two. "Magic enhancements? I haven't heard anything like it. You mean like those scales of yours or armors?"

Ichigo shrugged. "The scales, sure. Armors are just waste of money..." he scratched the back of his head. "Maybe a pair of gauntlet will do," he said as he used Requip magic. With a poof, a pair of brown leather gauntlets with multiple runes inked in rings around where wrists were, and he handed them to Laxus. "Consider this a welcome gift to the apprenticeship of the duo Black Dragon Slayers," he grinned as a ring of magic appeared around them.

Laxus quickly put them on.

"Let the fun begin."

Laxus just gulped. What the fuck he did get himself into?

* * *

**AoL**

* * *

"What happened after?" Mirajane asked Laxus.

Laxus, now two year older and adorning more scars along bot of his arms, grumbled. He had grown as well. From a old teenager, now he was a tall man who seemed to have these hard eyes. It made him look like a veteran mage despite his age. "We fuckin' stormed the fortress's entrance and first few gigantic rooms. Ichigo and Acnologia went through them like butter while I ... I was being an hindrance," he grumbled as he downed the drink he had in his hand.

"Wait, seriuosly?!" Natsu grinned as he jumped around Laxus. Gray stood still, just watching and listening. "I want to go there too! I wanna beat the crap out of those demons!"

Laxus glared at Natsu. "Shut the fuck up, you idiot!" Laxus roared.

Natsu staggered back from Laxus's sudden outburst.

"That 'expedition' was the hardest fuckin' thing I've ever been. I had my arm ripped from me from a low-class demons!" he growled as he rolled up his sleeve to show a thick scar that went all the way around his shoulder. "If it wasn't for Ichigo, I would be armless right now... Don't even joke about going there. You won't last as much as a second!"

Everyone blinked before Cana decided to ask her question.

"So... where are they now?" she asked.

Laxus looked at her with a glare before he shrugged and went back to drinking. "He said he's going to camp that fortress before going to participate in the Grand Magic Tournament," he replied as he took another swig. "...Told me to fuckin' get back to the guild on my own. Fuckin' told me to 'go babysit the others and invite them to the tournament'... I'm not his fuckin' babysitter..." he muttered and took another swig.

"That's a lot of fucks there," Gray commented.

"Well, I don't fuckin' care! You wouldn't fuckin' care too if you went along and got your ass handed to you everyday!"

"So ... "

Laxus reached into his jacket and pulled out a envelope that bore the mark of the Magic Council and the Rune Knights. "I get to invite you all, since he won't be there before the tournament begins. But it says something about invite limit here..."

Natsu grinned. "Don't worry about inviting the guild, Laxus!" he said as he, Erza, Mirajane, Elfman, and the members of the Thunder God Tribe, which Laxus formed before being kidnapped by the Black Dragon Slayer duo, pulled out their own envelopes. "We got enough to invite the whole guild and then some!"

Laxus grinned before he took another swig.

* * *

_The Demon Fortress, _**1st Circle of Hell**

Ichigo burped as he threw away a large bone over his shoulder.

"Ichigo, stop fucking burping," Acnologia growled in her dragon form as she chewed on one of the larger bull-like demon.

"Not my fault that gas builds up," Ichigo complained as he stood up from a hundred meter high pile of demons. "Good thing this room is so big. I would've had some trouble otherwise," he said as he looked up to the ceiling, which was about another 200 meters away.

Acnologia scoffed. She took another bite before she returned to her human form. "Alright, you know what this means now, right?" she asked him. "Since we got to do this, as per my request, we get to go participate in that tournament and see your fucking human guild."

Ichigo chuckled. "I don't get why you still hate humans. But let's go!" he replied enthusiastically as a magic ring formed around the two of them. "'Time to learn those new dragonslayer moves you mentioned!"

* * *

**And cut.**

**This is the end of the 5th chapter, eh? And a large time skip too. This chapter is slightly longer, too.**

**Now, I just literally skipped the time skipping because that's what it is for. Also, writing how Laxus trains isn't that fun. While he may object to some of the more intense and suicidal trainings like visiting Hell, the demon fortress, he's the one to just do the training Ichigo and/or Acnologia assigns him. So I skipped, since it's boring. **

**This also means that there were changes to characters' personality. Namely Laxus and Acnologia. I didn't make them say fuck every other word before, did I? And Laxus now has a harder look at reality.**

**This chapter marks the end of the first arc of the remake, the New Family**

**Next Chapter: 7**  
**Let the Tournament Begin!**

**Next Arc: 2**  
**Grand Magic Tournament I**


End file.
